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ETHIANISM 



OR THE 



Wise Men Reviewed 







By RIPLEY, 



"Man is not born to solve the mystery of existenci , 
but he must nevertheless attempt it in order that he 
may learn to keep within the limits of the hnowable." 

— GOETHE. 



ATLANTA. GEORGIA: 

Constitution Publishing Company. 

1893. 






.. 



\3 



o\ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, 

By P. J. RIPLEY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 






PREFACE. 

Philosophy philosophizes on the facts known to the 
vulgar ; if the vulgar were to turn about and philoso- 
phize on the facts of philosophy and religion, it would 
be most presumptions in the vulgar, and no doubt both 
religion and philosophy would be disgusted. Yet, a 
little of the every day common sense of the vulgar, 
thrown into religious and philosophical discussion, might 
have a salutary effect. 

But the man who does this runs great risk, or rather 
he runs no risk at all, for it is morally certain he will 
be called shallow, superficial, commonplace and all that. 
Mystery, or mysticism, seems the measure of profundity 
in religious discussion; great words and intricate logical 
formula, to which no reader, perhaps, attaches the same 
meaning as the writer, is the measure of profundity in 
philosophy. And this is all natural enough, for since 
no writer is capable of anything profound, his only 
chance of attaining unto profundity is to so express 
himself that the reader has room to imagine it. Just 
so soon as the writer expresses himself in a way to be 
understood, he is superficial and commonplace. 

If perchance there is anything in this little work at 
all approaching profundity, it will he found in the 



iv PREFACE. 

thoughts, and not in the language. The writer offers 
the reader no idea lie has not himself, which is, perhaps, 
additional proof of a lack of profundity. And he aims 
to so express himself that the reader will have the idea 
and retain it. Hence the unorthodox "we" is used, 
which means both the writer and reader, since the writer 
aims for the reader to go with him; hence some slang 
is used, and even ungrammatical expressions, if thought 
best, to fix the attention of the reader. The wri- 
ter's purpose is to give the reader certain concepts, 
and to prevail with him to accept them as objectively 
true; whatever policy he has thought would produce the 
result has been adopted, regardless of what literary crit- 
ics may think about it. This affront, no doubt, the 
critics will resent in approved style, if they give me any 
attention; and it is right they should do so, since it is 
their special business to see to it that the English lan- 
guage is not imposed on, and that all writers are 
orthodox. 

An original Mss. of 2,000 pages was simmered down 
to 600 and that down to this. As so much is attempted 
in so small compass, necessarily the style is jerky and 
somewhat dogmatic; like the dictionary it changes the 
subject often without always an apparent connection, 
since there is not space to lead up from one position to 
another in a proper deference to the reader's mental 
processes. 

As to the why of this concentrated presentation the 
writer is unknown, and on all such the publisher looks 



PREFACE. v 

with a decided askance. After two efforts by letter to 
submit the Mss. of 600 pages for examination, which 
were not even answered, the writer became discouraged; 
and, not being a man of any great patience nor withal 
gifted in soliciting charitable contributions, he decided 
to bring the work out on his own responsibility. 
But to do this he had to make the thing mighty small; 
for that was the size of his pocket-book. 

The price is pretty steep for the amount of paper and 
printer's ink invested, but the thing is not sold by 
pound, neither by the yard. It is my judgment that a 
work of this kind is worth a cent a page if it is worth 
a centipede. As the book will be left to make its own 
way of its own "heft," without the puff of advertising 
and the halo of a publishing house to illuminate its 
merits, the purchaser is likely to see the size before pur- 
chasing the book; and if the buyer does not buy, per- 
haps he will not be seriously damaged by the price. 

Ripley. 



CONTENTS: 



CHAPTER I. 

ETHER AND SYSTEMS OF EXISTENCE IN ETHER. 

Ether unknown : Systems of existence known to the intelli- 
gences of the system. The infinite God of Ether ; the Local 
Gods of systems and parts of systems. A foundation laid for 
something more concrete and perhaps more interesting. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE INDIVIDUAL 

Is some great Noumenon Manifesting itself to our Capacities. 
If manifested in any space in physical qualities it is then 
the physical individual ; if manifested in spirit attributes it 
is then the spirit individual. All men believe this but differ 
as to what the noumenon or God is. 

CHAPTER III. 

ETHIA. 

The Impending Contest among the Gods. One wants an infi- 
nite absolute God for all existence ; not finite Gods for local 
areas. Ethia, the Infinite Absolute God, is the God of the 
higher order of Religion, Philosophy and Common Sense. 

CHAPTER IV. 

ETHIA AS A CREATOR AND PRESERVER. 

Creation; Evolution; The Ethian Plan. Was the world made 
for Man ; How about Evil ; is the Devil any good ? The 
"Fall. " Europe and America on the same track the East 
has already passed over ; Terminus the same. Theology and 
Philosophy arrive at the same conclusion, but war about 
terms and avenues of approach. 



vm ( ONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD. 

The Noumenon of Movement in the thing acting. All things 
have the Intelligence and Will of their own acts. They act 
voluntarily, and not on compulsion. The Sun mass. A 
straight line. Laws of Nature. Providential Government. 

• CHAPTER VI. 

WHAT SHALL WE DO TO BE SAVED? 

The Materialistic and Pantheistic Plan ; The Religious Plan ; 
The Ethian Plan of Salvation. Boodhs. One Life at a time. 
AVill Man have another life? Heaven and Hell. How they 
come about and the conditions there. 

CHAPTER VII. 

IDEALISM. 

Shall the Process of Knowing Annihilate the thing Known. 
General Considerations. A Theory of perception. Does the 
object duplicate its qualities in the senses aud do we properly 
locate in externality. If so the World is, and is what it 
appears to be. Don't run to seed. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

IDEATION. 

Science uses the Senses and Consciousness ; Religion and Phil- 
osophy use Ideation. Ideation not altogether reliable in 
the Science domain where its assertions can be tested by the 
senses and consciousness ; Is ideation more fortunate else- 
where. The baleful influence of the Hopes, Fears and 
Vanities, and of obsolete Fundamental principles. Conclu- 



INDEX. 

Chapter I. 

Ether and System of Existence, etc 11 

Chapter II. 
The Individual 30 

Chapter III. 
Ethia 43 

Chapter IV. 

Ethia as a Creator and Preserver 58 

Chapter Y. 
Government of the World 96 

Chapter YI. 
What shall we do to be Saved_ 125 

Chapter VII. 

Idealism 161 

Chapter YIII. 
Ideation . 196 



CHAPTER I. 
ETHER AND SYSTEMS OF EXISTENCE IN ETHER. 

Ether Unknown : Systems of Existence known to the Intelli- 
gences of the System. The Infinite God of Ether : The local 
Gods of Systems and Parts of S3 T stems. A Foundation laid 
for Something more Concrete and perhaps more Interesting. 

The two great facts of existence are Ether and indi- 
vidualization in that Ether. Ether is infinite, filling all 
space as well where individuality is as where it is not. 
Individuality is finite, occupying certain limited space. 
But in occupying that space it is but super-addition in 
that Ether, which Ether is the same everywhere. Indi- 
viduality in nowise displaces Ether; for this Ether is in 
everything and everything is in it; in it not only we, but 
also the planet and star move and have their being. 

The universe is one system of existence in this Ether. 
It is a system of existence because possessing certain 
properties, qualities or attributes; and these qualities or 
attributes differentiate the universe, not only from the 
infinite Ether itself, but from all other systems of exist- 
ence that may be in that Ether. Man, as a part of the 
universe system of existence, possessing the same quali- 
ties as the system, is capable of knowing the system in 
those qualities. But he is incapable of knowing Ether, 
or anv other system of existence in that Ether, for thev 



12 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

do not possess the qualities of the universe; therefore, no 
qualities in which he can realize them. If he under- 
takes to conceive of Ether, or of any other system of 
existence but the universe, he must needs impute to them 
the qualities of the universe, for he is incapable of know- 
ing them in any other qualities. But when he imputes 
to Ether, or to other systems of existence, the qualities 
of the universe, he makes them, thereby, a part of the 
universe, and is not thinking of Ether or of those other 
systems. Man can only grapple with Ether and external 
systems in the intellectual way by conditioning them as 
the universe is conditioned, and, the moment he does 
that, they are not Ether nor external. 

Man knows something of the universe as far as the 
telescope reaches; he knows not how much farther it may 
go, or what there is in it. He knows the universe in 
the qualities he has capacities to realize. The universe 
may have other qualities, but man knows nothing about 
them; if there, they are beyond or outside his capacities. 
If he had other senses he might know more; if he had 
fewer senses evidently he would know less; for each 
sense is adapted to knowing the universe in certain qual- 
ities. The qualities and attributes in which man real- 
izes the universe are rather limited in number; the great 
variety of individuality that makes up the universe 
comes of difference of degree and combination of these 
few qualities. 

If Ether has none of these qualities in any sort of 
combination, man evidently can know nothing of Ether ; 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 13 

he cannot see it, he cannot conceive of it, and evidently 
he is hot conscious of it. If other systems of existence 
in Ether have none of the qualities of the universe, 
which qualities alone man can know, evidently we would 
know nothing about them, even if those systems sur- 
round us on every side. A thing six inches from a 
man's nose would be nothing to that man if it possessed 
no qualities in which he can realize it; and it possesses not 
such qualities if it has not the qualities of the universe, 
and if it possesses such qualities it is a part of the uni- 
verse, and is neither Ether nor any other system. 

Then if there are other systems of existence in Ether 
man cannot know it; if they are not there, he cannot 
know it ; for no man can transcend his capacities to 
affirm or deny. But Ether within the planets and stars 
is scarcely comparable with Ether between, and if 
there are no other systems of existence in Ether beside 
the universe it certainly is not for want of elbow 
room. It is scarcely supposable that Ether exhausted 
itself in the creation of the universe, but man is prone to 
think so since it gives him very great prominence in 
infinite affairs. 

It is believed by many that the universe itself is a 
dual system of existence conjoined in the same space, 
physical on one side, spiritual on the other. They 
believe that there is a seen, tangible universe system real- 
ized by the senses in the qualities of solidity, color, 
form, taste, smell, sound, and that there is also ah unseen, 
intangible universe system conjoined with the physical, 



14 ETHIAJSISM: OR THE 

which is realized by consciousness in the attributes of 
thought, emotion, will. The physical system is realized 
in physical qualities, through the senses and ideatively ; 
the spirit system conjoined we know in spirit qualities 
by consciousness. We can't see spirit in others, nor out- 
side the flesh; for spirit has no perceptive qualities oth- 
erwise it would be a part of the physical system, and 
would not be a spirit system. Nor are we conscious of 
other men's spirits; for consciousness is self-realization 
by the spirit that has the consciousness. But we can 
see the physical side of other men, and through that the 
spirit conjoined, in a way. 

Xow if spirit went out the flesh retaining its con- 
cious personality and all its attributes we could not see 
that spirit, nor be conscious of it, if another man's, 
however near it might be; and we could only conceive 
of it as regards form and position. If these spirits 
went out from Earth to Ether, and other spirits from 
other planets and stars went out to that Ether also, then 
they would in that Ether form a system of existence as real 
as the universe. Yet we would know nothing about it ; 
for it is a system of existence possessing no qualities in 
which we can realize it by any capacities we have. At 
the same time, however, those spirits would realize each 
other and their environment ; for the intelligences of 
every system of existence harmonize in nature with 
the system of which they are a part, and know the 
system in the qualities they have themselves, just as man 
knows the universe system in the qualities he has. But 



WISE MEN RE VIE 1 1 'ED. 1 5 

the query would be whether the intelligences of any 
one system know anything of another system. Man 
does not ; he knows nothing of the spirit system of exis- 
tence that may have gone out to Ether from the Earth 
and stellar existence. Do the spirits of that system 
know anything of man's spirit in the flesh? Echo 
answers. But we suppose they know nothing of his 
physical side ; for spirit in this life only knows physical 
things through the physical side with which it is con- 
joined, and in the spirit system supposed the spirit indi- 
vidual there has no physical side, from the resurrection 
or elsewhere, and needs none ; for it now knows only 
spirit things in the spirit way. 

AVe repeat that the two great facts of existence is 
Ether and individualization in that Ether. The uni- 
verse is one system of existence in that Ether. There 
may be many other systems of existence in Ether. And 
outside them all, yet within them all, is Ether itself. 
All systems of existence differentiate themselves from 
Ether in the qualities they have as systems: one system 
differentiates itself from all others by having different 
qualities from those others. One system, however, is 
not a system because it is not another: a system is a 
system because it is itself, and it is itself because possess- 
ing certain qualities, which qualities demark it, not 
only from Ether, but from all other systems not having 
the same characteristics. A horse is a horse because 
possessing certain qualities and attributes in certain 
degree and combination ; a tree is a tree because possess- 



16 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

ing the same qualities in different degree and combina- 
tion. Both are of the same system because possessing 
tht' same character of qualities. Difference of qualities 
differentiate one system from another, and all systems 
from Ether. Difference in degree and combination of 
qualities differentiate one individual from another in the 
same system. There are but few features in the human 
countenance, yet scarcely any countenance but that in 
some respect differentiates itself from all others. 

But what is Ether, and what is individualization in 
that Ether? Science identifies Ether and the universe, 
both at bottom are the Atom; the universe is the atom 
of the ordinary species. Ether is the atom of the vor- 
tex-ring kind. The Atheist, who refuses to go beyond 
the element, identifies Ether and the universe ; both are 
composed of elements. Materialists identify Ether and 
the universe; all is matter. Pantheists identify Ether 
and the universe; all is spirit God. Philosophy iden- 
tifies Ether and the universe in the absolute, which is 
God. Science tells us the universe came up out of 
Ether through nebula. Hegel tells us the universe is 
the self-development of the absolute. So that we may 
take it that Ether and individualization is abundantly 
identified. Ether and all systems of existence in Ether 
are identified in noumenon. But all systems are dif- 
ferentiated from Ether and from other systems by the 
qualities they have. Ether is that noumenon non- 
manifested; the universe is the noumenon manifested to 
man's capacities. The other systems is the noumenon 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 17 

manifested to the capacities of the intelligences of these 
systems. What man calls phenomena is nonmenon 
manifested to his capacities in certain qualities. To the 
intelligences of other systems phenomenon, there is non- 
menon manifested to their capacities in certain qualities. 
But nonmenon in Ether as permeating all existence 
and filling all space is phenomenon to its own intelli- 
gence, and possibly to the "angels," "spirits of light," 
or such like members of the royal family. We plebiau 
fellows who have come up through systems of existence, 
and out of many trials and tribulations, can only know 
nonmenon as phenomenon on our plane, and we can't 
know noumenon at all in Ether, nor in any system of 
existence but our own. That is all man can do now; 
what he will do later we do not know at this writing. 

Of course it will be objected that the identification of 
Ether with the nonmenon of existence, as outside of 
manifestation, is outrageously gross, superficial and com- 
monplace; it is not at all profound, mysterious nor 
learned. Well, just how gross is Ether? Is the gross- 
ness in the thing or in your concept of the thing? You 
perhaps conceive of Ether as very thin air, but is it 
that? The truth of the matter is that we do not know 
anything at all about what Ether is; we know just as 
much, and no more, about it than we do of the nou- 
menon of existence outside our capacities, or where non- 
manifested; it is not manifested to our capacities in any 
qualities we are capable of realizing; it is not manifested 
in physical qualities; it i> not maniiested in spirit aitrL 



18 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

butes. Therefore, it is not matter, nor is it spirit, but it 
is "something" beyond and antecedent to both. It is 
unknown and unknowable to man, because possessing 
neither physical nor spiritual qualities, the only qualities 
in which man can know anything. It is unknown and 
unknowable to the intelligences of other systems because 
it has not the qualities of those systems, the only quali- 
ties in which they can know anything. It is only 
known to itself and the royal household, if such house- 
hold there be. What the spirits of men will know 
about it after physical death no living man knows. 

This much we do know about this Ether, however, 
let it be what it may: We know that it is infinite and 
absolute, and that the universe and all systems have 
come up out of it; we know that in this way it has cre- 
ated the universe. When we say come up out of it, 
and when we speak of Ether as outside the universe, we 
don't allude to space; for Ether is within everything and 
everything is in it; nothing is ever outside of Ether, 
nor Ether outside of anything in the space way; for 
space, like all our other terms, is lor use in the system 
and has no application to Ether. But the universe 
comes up out of Ether and is outside of Ether in the 
sense that Ether in universe space is manifesting itself 
to our capacities in certain qualities and combination of 
those qualities. But the manifestation does not displace 
Ether non-manifested, which is continuous in all space. 
This non-manifested Ether is the one thing common to 
all systems of existence and to all space. Different 



WISE MEN BE I r IE WED. 1 9 

systems of existence, and different members of the sys- 
tem, the Earth for instance, may have all the local 
Gods they want inferred from the system, but the one 
God common to all systems and Ether, and from whom 
all other and local Gods come, is the infinite, absolute 
God, represented by the infinite Ether. 

Now this Ether is the great fact of existence, the 
infinite, absolute fact, but at the same time all systems of 
existence, the universe among the rest, are small facts, 
finite facts. 

But man in his egotism reverses this order. And he 
does so partly because he is down in the universe, so 
swamped in it that he can't see out. To him the uni- 
verse, because he is a part of it and is capable of know- 
ing something about it, is the great fact of existence; 
and Ether, and other systems of existence in that Ether, 
are not facts at all, they are "nothing," for the most sat- 
isfactory reason that man knows nothing about them. 
Philosophy speaks of the absolute as "nothing," until it 
self-develops into the universe; religion has the universe 
created out of nothing. And to those men who start 
from such foundation, nothing is about what the universe 
amounts to ; religion, represented by Bishop Berkeley, 
says the physical universe is "nothing." Philosophy, 
represented by Hegel, says the spirit or unseen universe 
is also "nothing." So that if, in the creation of the 
universe you start with "nothing," you find that the 
thing holds its own remarkably well; it is "nothing" 
all the way through ; nothing in the beginning, and 



-20 l/l IflANISM: OR THE 

nothing in the end. But if you start with something a 
little more substantial, you find that the results are more 
substantial, and perhaps a little more satisfactory. If 
von begin with "something" you end with "something." 
If the infinite absolute, represented by Ether, is a 
decided " something," although unknown and unknow- 
able to your capacities, then the universe within your 
capacities, both seen and unseen, is a decided "some- 
thing," and by no means owes its existence to being 
within man's feeble ken. 

Well, we are very much of opinion that the infinite 
absolute, represented by Ether is a very great " some- 
thing" of which the universe is a small "something," 
equally real, manifested to our capacities. What this great 
"something" is when not manifested to our capacities 
evidently we do not know. And the qualities of the 
universe, whether physical or spiritual, in which the 
absolute manifests itself to our capacities, gives us no 
idea of the absolute in Ether not manifested in these 
qualities; nor does it give us any idea of the absolute as 
manifested in other systems of existence; for it could 
not possibly do so. Yet we must suppose that the abso- 
lute, as represented by Ether, has qualities and attributes; 
they are simply a huckleberry above our persimmon; 
we can form no concept of them; for if we could, then 
we could know noumenon as noumenon; but as it is, we 
can only know noumenon as phenomenon, on our 
plane or in the universe. It is bad on us, but we don't 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 21 

see just bow the thing is to be helped, unless we were 
"born again" and of a different and higher race. 

The only sense in which Ether and other systems of 
existence in that Ether is ''nothing," is that man knows 
nothing about them, and he knows nothing- about them 
because they are not manifesting themselves to his capac- 
ities in any qualities he can apprehend. If, for this 
reason, yon call the absolute "nothing," you make your 
capacities the measure of existence, and if yon commit 
that folly yon must needs accept all the errors that fol- 
low. And there is no source of error greater than this 
undue prominence which the wise men give themselves 
and the universe in infinite affairs. When man has 
humility enough to accept his proper place in nature, 
and nature's proper place in the absolute, then he will 
perpetrate fewer absurdities; he will then be capable 
of a more correct view of the concatenation, and many 
of the myteries of existence will fall away. The trouble 
now is that man, having in his vanity placed both him- 
self and the universe on an high pedestal, by making 
the universe the whole of existence, and having it crea- 
ted for man's sole benefit, finds it impossible to conform 
facts with these assumptions, and there is much mystery 
in the laud, most of which is of his own making. When 
man looks on himself as a part oi the universe, and 
the universe as a very small part of infinity, then he 
will study both himself and the universe in a clearer 
light; there will be less fog and a better understanding. 

Man is as real as the universe, and of the same mate- 



22 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

rial; the universe is as real as the absolute, aud of the 
same material; for both man and the universe is the 
absolute in certain Ether or part manifesting itself in 
certain qualities and attributes. Man, as a part of 
this system, has capacities for its realization, but for the 
realization of the absolute in Ether and in other systems 
of existence he has no capacity, aud, like old uncle Ned, 
he must needs let the corn cake be. 

We have thus far used the term Ether to represent 
the great uoumenon of existence, by way of holding our 
concept to the rack. If objection is made to this, then 
we say it is what you all do. If you are an Atheist, then 
the elements outside the universe are represented by 
Ether; if you are an Atomist then Ether represents the 
atom outside the concatenation; it is the same if you are 
a Materialist, or a Pantheist. You have but two locations 
for a God, Ether and individualization in that Ether;., 
you know your God manifested in individuality; you do 
not kno;v him non-manifested in Ether. You don't 
know matter except as manifested in the physical 
individual; you don't know spirit except as manifested 
in the spirit individual. You don't know the atom 
except as manifested in its aggegations in the universe ; 
you never saw an atom and you never will. The 
melancholy fact was long since announced that you ne'er 
shall see a molecule; then it is poorly worth while to be 
looking round for an atom. The most powerful micro- 
scope says not one word about them. And one wonders, 
if the power of the best microscope were taken as a unit,. 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 23 

just how many microscope units it is supposed we fall 
short of seeing an atom. Our own private opinion is 
that if all the microscopes in the universe were strung out 
in a line, and we looked through them all we would still 
fail to reach the atom; for the noumenon of existence in 
Ether is not manifesting itself to our capacities even 
through microscopes. You can no more see God through 
any microscope than you can see heaven through any 
telescope yet invented, and we know of no inventor who 
is experimenting in either direction. 

The Atheist is the only man who knows anything of his 
God outside his manifestation in the individual. The 
elements are the Atheist's Gods and they manifest them- 
selves to him in the things they form. If you say, Mr. 
Atheist show me some of your G >ds, he will set to work 
and analyze the individual until he has his Gods before 
your eyes naked as a spring chicken and true to life. 
No other man can do that; even the Atomist falls short. 
But the Atomist says we can show you the atom as it 
manifests itself in the element and the individual. Oh! 
Lord! Any of us can do that; Materialists can, Pan- 
theists can. If definite proportions is the argument 
then we all say that it is the way our God has of doing 
at that point. No doubt about what is done and 
the way of it; the rub is what God does it. No doubt 
God manifests himself in the concatenation as science 
says he does, but what is the true coucept of God out- 
side of such manifestation? We don't think he is an 
atom; we have no disposition to whittle God down to a tine 



24 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

poiut like that. The atom won't even do as a bridge, 
spanning the chasm, separating the known from the un- 
known; for we know nothing of the other end of the 
bridge nor of the pillars thereof; we know as much of 
any other bridge whether the material be matter, pan God 
or what not; Ave only know the manifested end. 

The great bother is that we can only know God as 
manifested in the universe, and that manifestation gives 
us no idea of God in Ether not thus manifested. In 
this respect the Atheist is like the rest. He can't look 
at water, and in that tell anything about O. & H., nor 
can he tell anything about C. H. & O. by drinking a 
glass of whiskey. He must needs analyze before he can 
tell anything of his Gods outside of the individual, and 
he finds that his Gods outside of water have not the 
appearance of water. But others of us can't reach our 
Gods by analysis ; we can't find them out by searching, 
our tether is too short. If, however, the Atheist can 
know nothing of the elements by looking at the indi- 
vidual they constitute, then we can form no concept of 
God by looking at the universe, no matter what part 
and aspect of it we attend to in the inference. Hence 
the absurdity which our wise men perpetrate when they 
name God, the absolute in Ether, from some aspect of 
his manifestations in the Earth. Hence the absurdity of 
calling God Matter because of the physical aspect of the 
manifestation ; or Pantheistic God because of the spirit 
aspect of the concatenation ; or personal God from the 
personal aspect. Hence the absurdity of calling him 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 25 

thought, eternal consciousness, mind, love, or any of the 
nicknames too tedious to mention. The total manifes- 
tation gives us no concept of the infinite absolute God 
in Ether, then what adequacy has a concept formed fioni 
gome minor aspect of the concatenation. Even were 
man capable of imagining God, any concept he would 
form from the concatenation would necessarily he erron- 
eous and fearfully inadequate. Reason alone can appre- 
hend God as the infinite absolute ; and we can only judge 
of his character, as we would a theater man, by the char- 
acter of the play he offers us. We can only judge of 
God's purpose in the concatenation by what the concat- 
enation is, and by what is done in it — not by what is 
done by the individual, or the actor in the play; for the 
individual acts on his own responsibility — but by the 
trend of the thing or general results. If the general 
results is the production of the higher types, and the 
highest perfection possible to the type, then we may sup- 
pose that this is the God's ultimate purpose in the cre- 
ation of the concatenations. And we may suppose that 
when Ave further that purpose we will be doing God's 
will, and that he will at least reward us with the 
improved nature we thus give ourselves. He may also 
take us home to Ether to dwell with him there in our 
conscious personality , if we are good and faithful ser- 
vant- here. Otherwise he may keep us "transmuting" 
and "transmigrating" round in the earth until we are 
full ready to emigrate. But it is not our opinion sci- 
entists will go to heaven so long as they call God an 



26 ETH1ANISM: OR THE 

Atom, oor theology so long as they shut God up in a 
local heaven, giving the man Peter the keys. What- 
ever other merits they have they will scarcely secure 
reserved seats in heaven on tickets like that. On the 
contrary, we think it likely they will be kept transmut- 
ing round until they learn better manners. This will 
be bad on the parson, as his hopes run high, but as the 
scientists spirit is only a force, no doubt he will enjoy 
transmuting round in the concatination until conserva- 
tion allows him to transmute out of it, which, of course, 
will not be till the final day, or so long as the conserva- 
tion theory holds good. 

We see no reason why we should not suppose the plan- 
ets and stars inhabited by acclimated citizens and legal 
voters. A fish in the sea would, perhaps, deny that the 
conditions on dry ground and in air would support life; 
but we see no reason for our taking a like untenable posi- 
tion as to the other planets, sun and the stars. The Infi- 
nite absolute shows only one great purpose in the crea- 
tion of the earth concatenation, that of creating the high- 
est type of personality and the highest perfection in the 
type. This it does in a process of evolution and crea- 
tion, beginning with the elemental earth and ending up 
to this time in man. It is a case of progress from lower 
to higher types, and when a race is established it is still 
progress from its beginning to maturity. The higher 
the type, the higher the degree of conscious personality, 
which implies a higher order of spirit individuality con- 
joined with the physical side. If this is the only pur- 



1 1 1SE M EN BE I r IE I J r ED. 27 

pose .shown by the absolute in the creation of the earth, 
then the presumption would be that the God would have 
a like purpose, or line of creative conduct in the other 
planets, the sun and the stars. And not only that, but 
that He would have a like purpose in the creation of all 
systems of existence. The presumption, therefore, is 
that all members of the universe system, and of all sys- 
tems, have their intelligent citizens and legal voters. 
The only objection is that man knows nothing about 
them, and they could not be like man; therefore, they 
arc lk nothing." 

If, as we believe, there are intelligences in all parts of 
the universe, and in all systems of existence in Ether, 
then those intelligences simply harmonize both in physi- 
cal nature and in spirit nature with their environment, 
just as man harmonizes with the earth environment, and 
just as spirits in Ether would harmonize with the envi- 
ronment. It is not a whit more difficult for God to cre- 
ate in Jupiter races harmonizing with Jupiter conditions 
than to create man harmonizing with earth conditions. 
And the God would be likely to do the same things in 
the same way in both locations. The only bother is that 
man wont let Him; for all things were made for man, 
and existence is limited to what he knows about it; all 
else is not else at all, but "nothing." And just so it is 
nothing in the sense that man knows nothing about it, 
but in no other sense. 

Well, if there were intelligences in other parts of the 



28 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

universe and in other systems of existence, they would 
have some sort of concept of God, and if they exhibited 
no better judgment in the matter than do many men, 
they would name God from the different aspects of their 
environment. These gods would, of course, be only 
local gods for the environment, and not the infinite abso- 
lute God of Ether. The intelligences of different plan- 
ets and stars could not agree with each other on local 
gods; the earth could not agree with Jupiter, nor Jupiter 
with the stars. Nor could the universe with any other 
system of existence. For the intelligences of each being 
somewhat different, and the environment also different, 
necessarily their local gods wouldn't altogether coincide. 
But all could agree on the infinite absolute of Ether since 
this Ether is in and to all existence alike. All could 
agree as to the absolute of Ether, but no two planets 
would have precisely the same concept of Matter and 
Pantheistic God, and a different system of existence 
would know nothing at all about either. 

So that if it is permitted you, holding such concepts of 
God, to go out to Ether as a spirit where you will meet 
up with the legal voters lrom the stars and other systems 
of existence, our advice is that you do not be in any 
great haste to parade your local Gods, Matter, Pan God, 
or any such small sized fry for special admiration, for if 
it be not a most decorous crowd, they may laugh in your 
face, wondering where you were "fotch up." But you 
will never blush on account of the infinite absolute of 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 29 

Ether, nor have any disposition to hide Him away in 
your vest pocket, as you may with those others, for the 
intelligent voter from the remotest bounds of infinity 
will say, "bully for yon, guber-grabler, on that." 



30 KTIHANISM: OR THE 



CHAPTER II. 

THE INDIVIDUAL. 

In some great Noumenon Manifesting itself to our Capacities. 
If Manifested in any space in physical qualities it is there 
the physical Individual: If manifested in Spirit Attributes 
it is there the spirit individual. All men believe this but 
differ as to what the Noumenon, or God, is. 

The individual, whether a planet, or the things that 
constitute a planet, is some great noumenon manifesting 
itself to our capacities in certain spacefill certain degree and 
combination of certain qualities. When this noumenon in 
any space manifests itself in what are called physical quali- 
ties, as color, solidity, it is there the physical individual; 
and there the noumenon is looked on as matter by very 
many. If in the same space, or in any other space, the 
noumenon manifests itself to our capacities in what are 
called spirit attributes, as thought, emotion, will, then in 
that space it is the spirit individual; and there the nou- 
menon is by many called spirit or pantheistic God. If 
any one maintains that the individual is anything else 
than noumenon in certain space exhibiting itself to our 
capacities in certain qualities will he kindly point out in 
what particular. Evidently we know nothing of an 
individual but its qualities; of a physical individual we 
only know physical qualities; of a spirit individual we 



WISE MEN REVIEWED, 31 

only know spirit attributes. If any one knows more 
will he kindly point out the particular. 

We know physical qualities in certain degree and 
combination in certain space, that is, the physical indi- 
vidual, through the senses; we thus know our physical 
body and the balance of the external physical world; 
we know spirit attributes in certain space in certain 
degree and combination, that is, the spirit individual in 
consciousness. This consciousness is relf- realization by 
the spirit: and to this spirit our physical nature is exter- 
nal, and must be studied through the senses, other- 
wise we could safely sit down on anatomy, studying the 
body in consciousness. Then, our spirit realizes itself in 
consciousness, and also the external physical world 
through the senses and ideatively. But the spirit real- 
izes itself in its attributes, and the external world in its 
qualities; and both the spirit and the external world are 
but noumenon in certain space, exhibiting itself in cer- 
tain qualities, or aspects, to our capacities. 

In consciousness we know thought, emotion, will, and 
these combined or associated in certain space and degree 
is all we know of the spirit individual in consciousness. 
We cau't perceive spirit, neither our own nor those of 
other men; we can only perceive the physical attend- 
ants. Even spiritualists, who profess great familiarity 
with spirits out of the flesh, must needs have their spir- 
it- materialize, or take on some sort of physical body, 
before ordinary people can see, hear, or feel them; and 



32 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

even then we only see the physical body in physical 
qualities! 

We perceive physical things in physical qualities. 
And if we ideate a thing we must ideate it in perceptive 
qualities; for we are incapable of any thing else. No 
ideate object has for us any but percept qualities. In- 
tellectual Intuition, Inspiration and Ecstacy offer us in 
their ideate objects none but percept qualities. Some 
ungodly persons insinuate that they do not do so because 
they cannot do so; that they are incapable of such con- 
cepts themselves, and are not to be blamed for not offering 
them to us. But we must think those men of extraor- 
dinary powers simply decline to cast pearls before swine, 
knowing we were incapable of ideating such objects. 
Yet it is perhaps unfortunate that they have not offered 
us a sample by way of showing us what they could have 
done in that line. Until they do so many will remain 
of the opinion that they cannot do so, and that their 
super-ordinary capacities are of no avail in that direc- 
tion. Of course, ideatively we can combine in any space 
the perceptive qualities in a way that we have never seen 
them combined and that we never expect to see ; but 
that seems to be the utmost reach of human capacity, 
ordinary, and super-ordinary. It is unfortunate but the 
thing cannot be helped. 

Then we can only know qualities. Perceptively and 
ideatively we can only know physical qualities; con- 
sciously we can only know spirit attributes and those 
the attributes of the spirit that is conscious. Certain 



WISE MEN RE 1 7 E 1 1 r ED. 33 

degree and combination of qualities in certain space is 
the individual, whether physical or spiritual. 

A large class of intellects of a very high order, whose 
bane is, perhaps, their subtlety, coupled with an extrav- 
agant estimate of man's importance in infinite affairs, 
claim that this is all there is of the individual. To them 
a certain combination of thought, emotion and will, in 
certain space, is the individual spirit; and a certain com- 
bination of physical qualities in certain space is the 
physical individual. For them the individual is a syn- 
thesis of qualities; that synthesis is a mental one, and 
the mind is thought-relations or consciousness states. 
Well, that is very light diet, and those who can live 
on it contentedly need have no fears of starving to death 
on total skepticism, at which they land at the next step. 
Indeed, every step taken after an implicit reliance on the 
senses, is in the direction of total skepticism. If you can 
deny physical things seen in physical qualities, you can 
deny spirit things realized by consciousness in spirit 
attributes; and, if you can deny spirit, you can deny 
thought-relations, ending in total skepticism. Again, if 
you can deny spirit you can deny physical things, for 
you know as much of one as the other; you know them 
both in their qualities. If consciousness and the senses 
are not both reliable, then neither is; there is no crite- 
rion for either unless it be faith. If you have faith in 
one, why not in the other. 

But the great body of the people believe that the 



34 ETHIANISM: OR r LHE 

individual is something more than a combination of 
qualities in certain location. They believe that the 
individual is some sort of noumenon in certain location 
exhibiting itself in certain degree and combination of 
qualities and attributes. If it exhibit itself in physical 
qualities it there is the physical individual; if in spirit 
attributes it there is the spirit individual. 

Indeed, as a matter of fact, there is not perhaps an 
atheist in all America, though possibly many think them- 
selves such. The Christian concept of God has prevailed 
to such extent that when a man falls from that view he 
may imagine nimself an atheist. But whether he is an 
atheist depends. If he stops at the element, the gas, 
and his own spirit as realized in consciousness, believing 
in nothing beyond, then he may safely set himself down 
as an atheist; otherwise, he cannot truthfully do so. 

What is the criterion, the standard? It won't do to 
make the Christian view the standard; you had as well 
make Materialism or Pantheism the standard, for evi- 
dently, to any one view of God all other views are athe- 
istic. The question is, does the man believe in a God, 
a noumenon of existence; if he does, then he is not an 
atheist, no matter what may be his concept of the God. 
He may be absurd, but he is not Atheistic;. 

Accepting the fact that there is a noumenon of 
existence, a God, the next question is what is the correct 
concept of that noumenon; what concept harmonizes 
with objective fact? To this question various answers 
are given; and among the rest the Christian speaks up, 



WJSE MEN REVIEWED. 85 

taking his chances of being right in his guess, with the 
balance. Well, there are two classes of guessers ! One 
maintains that we can have a concept of God, and they 
offer us their particular concept as the true one, true 
absolutely, objectively true. The other maintains that 
we are incapable of forming a concept of God, and 
therefore they offer us none. The greatest thinkers of 
the age, outside of those who think an idea the same as 
the thing, and others who are inspired or appointed, 
such men as Spencer, Huxley, Mill, perhaps say that the 
God is "unknown and unknowable " to us with our 
present capacities. Whether or not these eminent men 
think we can know God as manifested in the universe, 
and have a concept of him there, we do not know. But, 
if there be not a known God in the universe, then there 
is no occasion for an unknown God elsewhere. But for 
the known and knowable God you would not have even 
a suspicion of an unknown and unknowable God. 
Through the known you realize that there is an unknown. 
If you never went to the seashore you would never 
look out on the sea. 

Others tell us we can know God outside His manifes- 
tations in the universe, and apparently they think they 
have a concept of him there. That concept they kindly 
offer us and wonder exceedingly that we do not accept 
at once and with many thanks. We are told that the 
God is the Atom, Matter, Pantheistic God, Personal 
God ; and that we will be damned if we don't have faith. 
Well, you can't palm your terms off on us, making 






36 KTHIANI&M: OR THE 



us think we have a concept when we have it 
not. We want .something besides your terms to look at ? 
something beyond, beneath ; we want a mental presenta- 
tion to the thing itself which your terms are supposed 
to express or represent. Do you give it to us, do you 
have it yourself? Of course if you think you have, 
you are content for the time of your belief; if you 
make us think we have, we are content, otherwise we are 
not. Well, who has any mental presentation of the 
Atom, Matter, or Pantheistic God outside of individual- 
ity, in which they make an expose of themselves in 
certain qualities to your capacities ? We know phys- 
ical things by the senses in certain location, what do 
we know of matter elsewhere ? We know spirit things 
in consciousness and in the conduct of other individual- 
ity, what do we know of Pantheistic God antecedent to 
his emanations into the universe ? And are you any 
the wiser about the atom? Yon know nothing of the 
atom except in the definite proportions you see in the 
element ; and those who conceive of God as a personal- 
ity in a local heaven, sitting on a throne, what do they 
but transfer a part of the universe in universe qualities 
to heaven and know God in that, just as Materialists 
know matter in the physical individual here ? 

Evidently God is not very successfully known where 
he does not manifest himself to our capacity of know- 
ing; we don't see how he could.be. Plainly we are not 
to blame in the matter; our failure to conceive of God 
comes, not of perversity, but of an incapacity for which 



! 1 'TSJS M EN RE 1 7 E 1 1 1JD. 37 

Ave are in no wise responsible. And if we are incapable 
of a concept of God, heaven and spiritual existence, to 
arbitrarily picture those things in conformity with our 
fropes and desires, and then whoop up to faith in that 
picture, is simply the childs play of make belief. 

But to return to our immediate subject, the individ- 
ual. All realists agree as to what the individual is; 
they say the concatenation is just what it appears to be ; 
they trust science and their own experience in the 
matter. They also, for the most part, agree that there is 
some great noumenon of existence which it is lawful to 
call God if we choose to do so, for no party has a patent 
on the term. They differ as to what the true concept 
of this God is, but they agree that the individual, 
spirit and physical, is that God in certain space exhibiting 
itself in certain qualities to our capacities, otherwise 
we would not know the God here nor elsewhere. 

The Atheist, if such there be, refuses to go beyond 
the element, or beyond his sense and conscious experi- 
ence. To him the individual is the elements exhibiting 
themselves to his capacities in certain space. An apple 
is the elements exhibiting themselves to his capacities 
in certain degree and combination of qualities in certain 
space. Now, there is this difference between the Atheist 
and others that all other noumenons are outside of our 
experience except as manifested to us in individuality 
within that experience; we know nothing of them by 
the senses and consciousness; we go out to them outside 
of individuality in the ideative way. The Atomist 



38- ETHIANISM: OR THE 

ideatively goes out to the atom, and to him the apple is 
the atom in certain space manifesting itself to our capac- 
ities in certain combination of qualities; and spirit is 
"force" manifesting itself to our capacities in certain 
attributes and conduct of the physical side or atom. 
To the Materialist the apple is matter manifesting itself 
in certain physical qualities; and what we call spirit is 
matter manifesting itself to our capacities in certain 
attributes and conduct. To the Pantheist the apple is 
the pantheistic God manifested to us in a shadow while 
the reality of the thing is spirit emanation, and it is an 
emanation because manifesting itself to our capacities in 
certain attributes and conduct. 

To those, who believe in the infinite absolute God of 
Ether, the apple is the God in that space, manifesting 
himself in certain qualities and conduct, which qualities 
and conduct demark it as an individual from all other 
individuality, not having the same combination of qual- 
ities and conduct. These manifested qualities in the 
apple also demark it from God in Ether, not manifested 
to our capacities at all. 

Now it is to be observed that all parties agree as to 
the character of the apple; it has the same space and 
qualities for all; it is just what it appears to be; and 
even idealists will concede that much if he is hungry 
for an apple, but he no sooner has it in his stomach than 
he is willing to swear there is not an apple in all the 
land. Thus all agree that space and qualities demark 
the apple from other individuality, and from the nou- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 39 

inenon non-manifested. They only differ as to what the 
noumenoD is. The contest is among the Gods them- 
selves. As there is only the one true God, evidently 

the others are bogus; only the one concept of God is 
absolutely, objectively true. 

To all the classes of thinkers that we have mentioned, 
their Gods are infinite and absolute, and the home of 
their Gods, outside of the universe, is everywhere in 
space, coinciding with the infinite absolute Either. But 
there is a class of theological thinkers, not so large, 
perhaps, to-day as formerly, whose God is a personal 
God in a local heaven. To the heaven they impute 
earth qualities, since they are incapable of conceiving a 
thing in any but perceptive qualities. And the God 
and the hosts, so far as they are ideated at all, are ideated 
necessarily in perceptive qualities. As these qualities 
are distinctive of the universe, heaven seems to be a 
part of the universe set off to one side in Ether out of 
reach of the telescope; and from that position the per- 
sonal God creates the universe out of nothing and 
breathes spirit into man. Well, in this view of God, 
what is the individual? The individual is a combina- 
tion of qualities, but the noumenon of the individual, 
what is that? Evidently it is either the " nothing" 
from which it was created, or it is the divine energy 
creating. We may suppose man's spirit to be the breath 
or spirit of God in that space manifesting itself to our 
consciousness in certain attributes of thought, emotion, 
will. As nothing is said of breathing spirit into the 



40 ETSrANISM: OB THE 

animal and lower existence, these are "nothing" in 
certain space exhibiting itself to our capacities in certain 
space and qualities, and in that act the "nothing" 
becomes "something" to us. 

Of course only theology can explain about the breath- 
ing business by which spirits were introduced into the 
world, and about the how of the control of the world 
by the divine energy of a personal God. If the God had 
breathed spirit into all the individuality created out of 
nothing, the thing would have been greatly simplified; 
for we could then have conceived of those other physical 
nothings being controlled by their spirit side just as the 
physical man "nothing" is controlled by the spirit man 
"something." The other Gods do so breathe spirit into 
all the world, and the physical side is controlled by the 
spirit side. If the Atom, or Matter, is the God, they 
breathe spirit into all things that act, manifesting them- 
selves in physical qualities, they are the physical indi- 
vidual, manifesting themselves in spirit attributes, they 
are the spirit individual conjoined, and the spirit indi- 
vidual controls the physical. This it does throughout 
the concatenation all the same as in man. And the Gods 
are, perhaps, not yet done " breathing" spirit into the con- 
catenation from Ether. When the mineral earth was 
formed so much spirit was breathed into the concatena- 
tion; in the creation of vegetation so much more spirit 
was breathed into the concatenation; and when the ani- 
mal and man was created, or just before, there was quite 
a "breeze" of spirit coming into the concatenation from 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 41 

Ether. And it is not at all certain that the breathing- 
business is not still going on, and that result may be a 
higher type of existence on Earth to which man will 
play monkey. 

Evidently the unseen universe of spirit is what sci- 
ence means by force, and the parson, by divine energy. 
Whatever the moving principle is in one part of the uni- 
verse, it is in all parts. If it is spirit in man it is spirit 
in the rock; if it is force in the rock it is force in man, 
the man on an high pedestal to the contrary notwith- 
standing. Of course man says he is an exception to all 
rules, but it must be remembered he does all the talking; 
the balance of the universe has not been heard from ; we 
can only judge by its conduct. But outside of talk we 
judge of spirit in other men by what they do. Perhaps 
we had better not form an adverse opinion until these 
other things talk out in meeting. If it is divine energy 
in lower existence it is divine energy in men; and the 
parson will be admitted into heaven as simple divine 
energy. If the scientist goes out to Pother as a force, he 
will be the object of much ridicule by those who go 
there as spirit, and he will not be able to transmute fast 
enough to escape it. 

No God ever yet manifested himself as a force. The 
concatenation is just what it is ; and it is a manifestation of 
some noumenon to our capacities; manifested in physical 
qualities, it is the physical individual; manifested in 
spirit attribute-, it is the spirit individual; and these are 
conjoined in all individuality. The unseen universe is 



42 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

as real as the seen, and we know as much about it, we 
know them both in their qualities. And in knowing the 
individual, we know the God as there manifested; but 
in that assuredly we do not know God in Ether non- 
manifested. Neither the physical individual nor the 
spirit individual gives us any idea of God in Ether. He 
may be matter and spirit in Earth, but in Ether he is 
neither one nor the other. The God of Ether manifest- 
ing himself in physical things is what you call matter; 
manifesting himself in spirit things, he is your panthe- 
istic God. But the infinite absolute God is beyond and 
independent of his manifestations; and there he is 
"unknown and unknowable," the incomprehensible, a 
profound mystery to man with his present capacities. 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 43 



CHAPTER III. 

ETHIA. 

The impending Contest among the Gods. One wauts an Infi- 
nite, Absolute God for all Existence; not finite Gods for 
local areas. Ethia, the Infinite, Absolute God, is the God of 
the higher Order of Religion, Philosophy and Common 

Sense. 

The twentieth century will probably remember the 
last decade of the nineteenth as the ten years' war 
among the Gods. That there should be such war seems 
something of an absurdity, since there is only the 
one God and there is none other for Him to war with. 
Yet, there are several Gods in the minds of men in this 
age, and very many God* have died out of the minds of 
men in the ages that are gone, died out a natural death, 
or were killed out in honorable warfare among the Gods 
themselves. 

Among the Gods of this age who contend for the honor 
of having created the world, and of preserving and con- 
trolling it by their divine energy, is the Atom God, the 
Matter God, the Pantheistic God and the Personal God. 

Now, there is no dispute about the universe; it is just 
what it is and does what it does do. It is that and does 
that, no matter what God runs the thing. No one God 
hops by another on that. And science and our own 



44 KTHIANISM: OR THE 

experience tell us all about what the universe is and 
what it does. 

Another thing, about which we think there should be 
no dispute, is that whatever God creates the universe, pre- 
serves and controls it by his divine energy; the Gods do 
not go in partnership in creation, preservation or con- 
trol ; the hive is rather a large one but the queen bee 
will not tolerate the presence or interference of any 
other. If the Atom God creates the universe then it 
preserves and controls it by its divine energy, the forces. 
If the personal God created the universe then the divine 
energy of that God preserves and controls it throughout, 
and the "forces" have nothing to do in the matter. The 
God and his divine energy are inseparable, and must 
stand or fall together; together they make up the sys- 
tem of thought that we are to accept or reject. 

There is no trouble as far as the senses and conscious- 
ness go. But when we pass beyond the senses from the 
elements, and beyond consciousness from our own spirit 
nature and from our personality, then the row begins; 
there is war among the Gods, much printers' ink is shed, 
and the orthodox world is disgusted. Why so? 

The God beyond the senses and consciousness, out- 
side the universe, is "unknown and unknowable" to man 
except in so far as we infer his character there from what 
it is here; we must needs know the God where we can't 
know him from what we know of him where we can. 
We must needs know the infinite absolute God in Ether 
through his finite manifestations in the universe. But, 



1 1 1SE MEN R E 1 7 E 1 1 ED. 45 

unfortunately for the peace of mind of the race, this 
infinite absolute God manifests himself in different char- 
acteristics in the universe. The universe has different 
sides or aspects; the physical side, tin 4 spirit side, and 
the personal or individual aspect. 

Now it would seem that if men are going to infer the 
character of God outside the concatenation by what it is 
in it, that they ought to infer from all the aspects. But 
they don't. A certain class will attend exclusively to 
the physical side of the universe, or manifestation of 
God, and infer from that the character of God. Of 
course, to them God is matter; and they fight for him 
giving as proof that he is God, the physical side from 
which he is inferred. Another class attends exclusively 
to the active side of the universe, inferring God from 
that, and then God is the spirit pantheistic God. And 
they fight for him, giving the spirit side of the concate- 
nation from which he is inferred as proof of his existence. 

Still another class will attend, to the personal or indi- 
vidual aspect of the universe, man especially, and they 
infer God from that. Necessarily their God is a per- 
sonal God; and they fight for him, giving as proof of 
his existence the personal a>pect of the concatenation 
from which he is inferred. And, to clinch the argument 
beyond the possibility of controversy, they tell us what 
the Jews, inferring from the same things, thought about 
the matter some few thousand years ago. Materialists 
and Pantheists offer us, as additional evidence of Matter 
and spirit God, what Kapila and Patandjali in Indian 



46 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

philosophy thought some few thousand years ago, but 
the thing with them won't work. Yet we see not 
wherefore, for evidently whatever God creates, existence 
inspires its legal voters in all they do and say. We 
deny that Matter and pantheistic God inspire man be- 
cause we deny that those Gods created men; but they 
have the same privilege if they deny that the personal 
God created men. 

But there are two other classes who infer God's char- 
acter outside the concatenation by what it is in it, and 
they seem to be a little less exclusive. Emanationists 
in their inference take into view both sides of the con- 
eatenation, but attending predominantly to the spirit 
side, the active Intellect is the great fact and physical 
things are shadows, umbrellas or such like penumbra. 
Science, in its inference, makes use of both sides, but 
attending predominantly to the physical side, the Atom 
is the great fact, and the active side or forces are shad- 
ows or scarcely so much which transmute without the 
least compunction of conscience. As between these 
parties it is a mere matter of stress. 

Now, this great difference will be observed between 
these partisans: one party makes God outside the uni- 
verse a personality, but a universality in it; the other 
partly makes God a personality in the universe, but a 
universality outside. The personal God sits on a throne 
in a local heaven, but he is omnipresent in the concat- 
enation; he is in everything and everything is in him; 
in him we move and have our being while here; but out 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. . 47 

there we shout hosannas before the throne. But the 
other Gods outside the concatenation are universalitie. 
everywhere diffused through infinite Ether or space, 
and they take on personality only in the concatenation. 
The planets individualize from Ether, and the individ- 
ual from the planet or Ether fund of matter and spirit 
in that space. According to these publicans and sinners, 
men in this life shout hosannas before a great variety of 
thrones, but after death they say not a word, having 
lost their shouting outfit, being reabsorbed into the uni- 
versality condition whence they came. 

As we have said, the two great facts of existence are 
Ether and individualization in that Ether, and both are 
identified in God. The universe is God manifested to 
man's capacities; Ether is God not thus manifested. 

Man in his egotism says the universe is all the 
manifestation the God makes of himself, and the 
earth is about all of the universe that amounts to 
much, as a manifestation to man, for it is all that 
he knows much about. Therefore, the base from 
which God's character is inferred is rather narrow- 
Berkeley complains that Matter and Pantheistic God are 
abstractions. Well, are not all Gods an abstraction? 
And a man is powerful apt to abstract from something 
he knows something about; indeed, we never knew a 
man to abstract from anything else. If a man's range 
of concept is limited, he abstracts from that, and his 
God is a local affair of the pigmy variety. This is espec- 
ially the ca>e if the man is of opinion that existence is 



48 El II I AXIS M: OR THE 

limited to what he knows about it. But as man's intel- 
lectual range enlarges, his God takes on more respecta- 
ble proportions. And when man's intellectual sweep 
takes in all the existence of all the infinities in all their 
minutiae, he will begin to have something like a respect- 
able idea of the infinite absolute God. But at present, 
many abstract from the physical side of the Earth, and 
Matter is God ; others abstract from the spirit side, and 
Pantheistic God is God; still others, from the person- 
ality of man and things, and the personal God out there 
on a throne is God. Many, perhaps, thinking that these 
inferences give God rather large proportions, or that it 
is inferring God's character from too broad a base, abstract 
from part of man's spiritual make-up, and God is 
thought, or eternal consciousness, or mind, or love, or 
what-not. Well, one wants a full sized God if he has 
any; otherwise, he had as well stop with the elements, 
his spirit nature and personality, and refuse to see 
beyond. 

When a man starts out on his own hook to find a God 
to his taste, armed with a club for those who do not fill 
his bill, naturally enough he starts from home, or from 
where he is when he starts. There are three main lines 
that he can go out on; the universe has three aspects, 
the physical aspect, the spirit aspect, and the personal 
aspect. He may go out on either of these lines in search 
of the true God. 

Going out on the physical line he comes first, after 
leaving the elements, to the atom God; he applies his 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 49 

club smashing them into homogeneity, and then stands 
face to face with matter "without form or parts" there- 
fore without even the atomic form and parts. He 
brandishes his club but withholds striking until he sees 
further. He then returns to himself and environment 
and, going out on the spirit line he comes to the spirit, 
Pantheistic God. He is not content but does not strike 
awaiting further developments. He again returns to 
himself. And going out on the personal line, he passes 
from personal man to personal God, and necessarily he 
gives him circumference or limits and a local habitation; 
for these are necessary attendants of personality in man, 
and in the God inferred. And he strikes, for what he is 
looking for is an infinite absolute God and not a local 
affair; and to be infinite he must be infinite in extension 
as in all other particulars, and could not possibly have a 
local habitation. 

He then debates the thing as between the Matter God 
and the Pantheistic God; and while at it he discovers 
that they too are local affairs. He finds that Matter is 
an inference from the physical side of the earth, or the 
universe at most, and could only be a God for that phys- 
ical side. He finds that the Pantheistic God is an infer- 
ence from the spirit side, and could only be a God for 
that side. And if he had not " struck" he would find 
that the personal God was an inference from the per- 
sonal aspect of the concatenation and could only be a 
God to that aspect. None of them infinite, none of 
them absolute. 



50 ETHIANISM: Oil THE 

The Greek and Roman Gods, Baal, and all that fam- 
ily of Gods, were loeal Gods for certain peoples and 
parts of the Earth. These, our Gods are not quite so 
local, but they are local to man and the planet; they 
are Earth Gods, inferred by Earth intellects, from Earth 
conditions. Therefore, while the earlier Jewish concept 
of God was immense improvement on Baal, because a 
broader field was taken into view in the inference, still 
that view was rather contracted as is clearly proved by 
the very great prominence given man and the Earth in 
Biblical accounts; for evidently the Earth to them was 
the great fact of existence, and the balance of the uni- 
verse, so far as they knew anything about it, were lamps 
hung out for the Earth's benefit; while no account 
whatever is taken of Ether or of other systems of exist- 
ence that may be and doubtless are in that Ether. 

By the time our man loses faith in the Matter God 
and the Pantheistic God, as an infinite God, he perhaps 
becomes discouraged, and concludes that no man can 
find out God by searching. But he looks however, to 
the other planets and stars to see how they are getting 
on in the " God" business; and he finds to his utter 
amazement that every devilish one of them has a full 
"set" of Gods inferred by each planet and star, from its 
own conditions and by its own intellects. These Gods, 
varying as the conditions inferred from, and the intellects 
inferring varied. And lie figures. He multiplies the 
number of earth Gods by the number of planetary exis- 
tences, " inside" and " outside" the telescope. He then 



WISE MEN BE VIE WED. 51 

remembers that this is only one system of existence, 

and he multiplies his last result by the number of pos- 
sible systems in Ether. And now he wants to bet he 
can come nearer guessing the absolute number of local 
(ind> than any man under the sun : Who will "raise" him 
a '•bean" on that? 

But there is only the one infinite absolute God, a God 
common to all existence and all intellects. And if you 
are searching for him you can't be satisfied with Matter, 
pantheistic or personal God. You may concede that 
they will do for Earth Gods, and be real Gods for the 
Earth, or even the universe. But that they are, any of 
them, the infinite absolute God, seems impossible and 
incredible. The infinite absolute God [must be inferred 
from infinite conditions, and from all conditions; other- 
wise he is not the God of all existence, but a more or 
less local affair. If this be true, then God is a "pro- 
found mystery," the "great unknown," outside his man- 
ifestation on our plane, the universe. 

Well, this is Ethia to whom we present you, and no 
doubt you are happy to meet her, though you may have 
a suspicion that you had seen her before in her manifes- 
tations in the universe; in certain philosophy, and heard 
<>f her in certain advanced theology. If you should 
ever be able, you should call on her at home, or outside 
of all manner of individualization. You will find her 
at any time and anywhere in that Ether which permeates 
all existence and fills all space. 

Beyond our local Gods, beyond alljlocal Gods, within 



52 ETHIANISM: OB THE 

them all, embracing them all, is Ethia the mother of all 
Gods. The two earth Gods, Matter and Spirit, are "son 
and daughter to Ethia "wedded" in the earth life, the 
issue of which union is man and all earthly things. 

From Ethia in the "beginning" came our local Gods, 
Matter and Spirit, and the local Gods of all planets, stars, 
systems of existence and infinities, and to her they will 
return in the "latter" day. 

But where the personal God, sitting out there on a 
throne, in a local heaven surrounded by battlements of 
which St. Peter has the keys, came from, or whose son 
he is, we have not the least idea. Possibly he is a church 
institution sent to this age by a remote generation. But 
shall any good thing, or lasting, come up out of Bosrah? 

Do you say this is outrageous? Then we say it is not 
even courageous. We are not at all certain that this 
infinite absolute God is not the God of the Bible before 
Western translation and church interpretation got hold 
of it. The Western man is a man of intense person- 
ality, and he imparts that coloring to everything he has 
anything to do with; the Eastern man runs to the con- 
templation of the absolute, neglecting the individual. 
Hence the Scriptures, as translated by the Western intel- 
lect and interpreted by Western theology, may give to 
God a personality not found in the original manuscript. 
But even the Scriptures, as offered us, greatly favor the 
infinite absolute character of God. A Jewish Rabbi may 
be supposed, in position, to know what the Jewish idea 
of God was and is. One of these will make high sport 



WISE VEX REVIEWED. 53 

of a man who talks about imagining, or conceiving of God. 
But the Western parson in a rural district has as clear- 
cut concept of his God as he has of his deacon. Sup- 
pose the two changed congregations? How would they 
fit? Indeed, to what extent would the rural parson 
adorn the refined city pulpit of a liberal church? 
Evidently, there is very great diversity of opinion among 
Bibical readers about the Bibical God. Some can con- 
ceive of him, some can't; and among those who can con- 
ceive of him there is great variety in the objective. 

But whatever may have been, or be, the God of the 
Bible writers, and of the earlier church, and of many 
churches to-day, and of the masses in most churches, 
this infinite absolute God is the God of common sense, 
of much philosophy, of some churches, and of the higher 
order of theological intellect and church membership 
everywhere. Common sense, philosophy and religion 
may arrive at the infinite absolute God in a slightly dif- 
ferent process of thought, but they get there all the 
same. Science and the intellectual evolution of the age 
compel them to it. 

Now, our excuse for using the term Ethia is that it 
has no associations. It is known that the term God has 
been applied to a great variety of objectives, some of 
which have not any great dignity. And every man uses 
the big G when speaking of his own particular concept 
of God, and the small g when speaking of other men's 
gods. A like objection urges itself against the terms, 
noumenon, absolute, substance, unity, idea; they have 



54 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

all been used|in certain sense and connection, and their 
tendency is to throw us back into the conceptive attitude 
of those who patented them. We have wished to use a 
term that" has jio such associations and that could not 
possibly have any such influence, and we think we have 
succeeded in this beyond perad venture by using a term 
that has no root in any language. 

Of course all these terms mean the same thing. 
When we use the term" Ethia we mean by it what others 
mean by substance, Absolute, Idea, God, unity, and 
what not; for really when men understand one another, 
there is not the radical difference in their views usually 
supposed. j^Many times when one party wars on another 
with a mighty^ war, the only real contention is the terms 
and manner of putting the thing; if the war is carried 
farther they war on thesameconcept they have themselves. 
And again, it often happens that men think they are 
putting forth something new, when, as a matter of fact, 
the full measure of their achievement is the clothing of 
old thoughts ii/a new garb. At this late day scarcely 
anything isj new* under the sun. The man is an evolu- 
tion of his age, and the age is an evolution of past ages. 
And if the man were posted as. to what has been thought 
and said injhis age and the ages gone, he would find 
that in the main the full measure of his achievement is 
in building those thoughts into some sort of system. 
One age adds very little to the sum total of human con- 
cej t, and often the addition of one man's column comes 



WISE MEN REVIEWED, 55 

« 
to naught. This is especially true in philosophy and 

religion, but is not so clearly applicable to science. 

As to the feminine character of the term Kthia, the 
noumenon of existence has much more the appearance of 
a mother than of a father. The universal application of 
the term father comes, perhaps, of the universal domina- 
tion of man over the weaker sex. But in this day of 
woman's rights we see not why there should not be a 
new deal. Evidently, of course, sex is no part of the 
character of God; sex makes its first appearance in the 
concatenation, and is a part of it. The imputation of 
any manner of sex to the non-manifested God would be 
the grossest of absurdity, no matter by whom perpetrated. 

And in this connection we will say that if there is 
anything- in this little work that has the appearance ot 
irreverence toward God, then we say the irreverence is 
not there. None but a fool would be irreverent toward 
the God of his existence. But men have different con- 
cepts of God, or ideas rather; and naturally enough, a 
man has no great respect for other men's concepts if they 
do not happen to be his own. As we have said, all men 
spell their God with the big G, the contempt they have 
for other men's gods is concentrated in the small g. 
The prophet said to Baal's priest, '-Call louder, perhaps 
your god sleeps, or perchance he is off on a journey." 
The prophet had not any irreverence toward God, but 
he did have toward the Baal concept. Well, we are 
neither a prophet nor his grandmother, but must confess 
to the same failing, which possibly may crop out in our 






56 ETH1AXISM: OR THE 



manner of speaking of any but the Ethian idea of God. 
Again, we look at God from the universe standpoint. 
Well the God has made the concatenation just what it is. 
When he created man he gave him a certain nature and 
placed him in a certain environment. For this we are 
thankful; we can "sorter" make out. And it is better 
to be that than to be a Jona gourd vine or not to be at 
all. No man can look at the wonderful mechanism of 
his nature and its miraculous adaptation to his environ- 
ment, and at the infinity of existence without being filled 
with awe and gratitude, provided, of course, he has a bosom 
in which to stow away such emotions. But we have no 
disposition to magnify the loving character of the father 
by saying that he made man perfect in the beginning of 
the race when the known facts all point to an opposite 
conclusion. Nor do we conclude that the God gave 
man a perfect environment, when our every day experi- 
ence is that there are many things in the concatenation 
that would be the better of being out of it, if we looked 
at the matter from the standpoint of man's present per- 
sonal interest. Indeed we have no disposition to whoop 
up to a gratitude that the facts do not justify. Nor 
would the God expect it of us. When w r e harmonize 
ourselves intellectually and emotionally with objective 
fact we have done the correct thing. To do more is 
preposterous in the sight of God and ought to be in the 
sight of men ; to do less is criminal. Of course the fash- 
ion is to credit the evil one with the evil of man's nature 
and environment, and so far as we know the devil enters 



WISE MEN BE VIE WED. 57 

no protest against the great injustice done him ; but if 
the God created the devil in full view of all the conse- 
quences can the devil be taken as an apology? Ah! we 
would not heap obloquy on God because of the imper- 
fections in man's nature and environment, as certain 
theology does, for all the church spires in the land! 






E'lHIANISM: OR THE 



CHAPTER IY. 

ETHIA AS A CREATOR AND PRESERVER. 

Creation. Evolution. The Ethian Plan. Was the World 
made for man? How about Evil. Is the Devil any good? 
The "Fall.'' Europe and America on the same Track the 
east has already Passed over; Terminus the same. Theology 
and Philosophy arrive at the same Conclusions, but war 
about Terms and Avenues of Approach. 

It is said of old that in the beginning God created 
the heavens and the earth. We think that likely enough, 
for it is what we have a God for. And in all probabil- 
ity the heavens and earth were created somewhere along 
about the time they began to be. Most things are; 
indeed, we never knew a thing to be created before it 
began, or to begin before it was created. It is a simul- 
taneous affair, and there, therefore, seems to be nothing 
at variance with facts in the statement that God created 
the heavens and the earth in the beginning. 

Again, it is said that the earth in the beginning was 
without form and void. The earth was not an earth 
until it had some manner of form and while it was void. 
No God could create a thing without giving it form, at 
least, it would not be a creation to us since it 
is impossible for us to conceive of a thing without 
investing it with form to begin with. Ethia mani- 
festing herself in certain space is the Earth, and 



WISE MEN RE VIE WED. 59 

the manifestation in form is certainly not an after- 
thought. What is meant, therefore, evidently, is that 
the Earth was still in the elemental or gasseous condi- 
tion. The God first creates out of herself in Ether the 
elements or gasseous earth and in the act the earth takes 
on form: and it is only void in the sense that this gasse- 
ous condition has not conditioned itself as other manner 
of individuality. The God having created from herself 
iu Ether the gasseous Earth in Earth space, she then 
creates from that gasseous condition, or fund of matter 
and spirit, the dry ground and water, then vegetation, 
then animal existence, finally man. And whether she 
will continue ascending the scale, creating after this a 
type higher than man, all the same as man is higher 
than the monkey no man knows. It is also well enough 
in this connection to remember that as matter and spirit 
in the gasseous earth was altogether an influx into earth 
space from Ethia in Ether, that it is great presumption 
to say that the influx was cut off at that point, and that 
all after creation was from the fund of matter and spirit 
as in the gasseous earth when scriptures tell us it was 
without form and void. An influx from Ethia in Ether 
could come into the concatenation on the spirit side at 
any time in the history of the concatenation, and thus 
knock conservation into pie. Conservation may work on 
the physical side, for the physical side of all things is 
substantially the same, and the Earth continues of the 
same diameter and circumference all the while. But it 
don't work on the spirit side; it has not worked in the 



<;<> E1HIANISM: OB THE 

past and there is no evidence that conservation works 
now. When vegetation and animal existence was cre- 
ated there must have been a decided influx of spirit from 
Ethia in Ether; it could not have come from the with- 
out form and void earth, nor from the mineral earth on 
any known mathematical principle, since this mineral 
earth at no time shows any deterioration on the spirit 
side. Nor can Science be certain that conservation 
works now on the spirit side, for they have no way of 
knowing that spirit is not still coming from Ethia in 
Ether into living existence, which at physical death goes 
to a general fund on the plane in air, from which posi- 
tion it may, after this, emanate into some higher type, 
giving man second place in nature. Conservation didn't 
work in the beginning, it don't work during the contin- 
uance of the concatenation, and it will be everlastingly 
"busted" in the latter day. All that conservation can 
say is that there is not at any time such a "whirlygust" 
of spirit coming into or going-out of the concatenation as 
to turn the thing up-side-down. And this is evident 
enough since the world wags on in pretty much the same 
old style from age to age. 

But Scripture tells us that after the without form and 
void was created in the beginning, the dry ground and 
water was created, then the vegetable, then the animal 
and finally man. We can see nothing extraordinary 
about this, however. True if it had been doue in so many 
literal (lays it would have looked a little like'hurrying up 
the cakes. But the literal days have been interpreted 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 61 

away after geology found they wouldn't do. And now a 
day means a certain period and a night means one of 
those long periods when there was no creation of new 
types and these two kinds of periods or seons, geology 
and other science tell us have actually followed each 
other as regularly as day and night, or as pig tracks in 
the snow. 

But as to the order of succession of these periods 
of creation we can see nothing extraordinary in the 
biblical statement. It would have been impossible to 
create dry ground and water before creating the elements 
that compose them. And to have created vegetation 
before there was dry ground to stand on, or fishes before 
there was any water to swim in would have been rather 
premature. And to have created vegetation before there 
was mineral matter to live on, and higher vegetatiou 
before there was the vegetable humus of lower and 
antecedent vegetation in the soil to support its peculiar 
life, would have been to create existence before the means 
had been laid up in the concatenation for its preserva- 
tion. To have created existence to-day that must needs 
die to-morrow for want of subsistence would have been 
nonsense to both common sense and inspiration. To 
have created the elephant and whale before there was 
dry ground and water would have necessitated their sup- 
port in space by divine energy alone. To have created 
them before there was- in their environment the means 
of their preservation would have necessitated that they 



62 E1HIANISM: OR THE 

be feci on manna and nectar which is rather expensive 
diet not often indulged in. 

The order of creation pointed out by Bible writers, 
and the order of evolution taught by science, is the only 
possible order that is self-supporting; it is the only way 
to build the pyramid, the only way to construct the edifice; 
and common sense realizes this fact as clearly as does in- 
spiration. The same antecedent conditions that lead up 
to the creation of a type of existence will preserve it 
after it is created; the type must harmonize in essentials 
with its environment when created, and so long as it 
continues. These antecedent conditions are all made for 
the type that follows in the sense that they lead up to its 
creation, and afterward preserve it. Every form of 
existence antecedent to the lowest vegetable type was 
created for the type in that sense; every form of lower 
vegetation was created for the higher in the same sense; 
every form of mineral and vegetable matter was created 
for the lowest type of animal existence in the same sense; 
and every type of lower animal existence w T as created for 
the higher type, in the same sense; and finally, every 
antecedent form of existence, sun light, and all, which 
man can use profitably in his business, was created for 
man in precisely the same sense, and in no other sense. 
All antecedent existence lead up to the creation of man; 
and the trend, of the whole thing is to preserve him, 
otherwise we would all die before the sun goes down. 
The conditions that create the race will preserve it so 
Jong as those conditions remain the same; but if there is 



WISE MEN REVIEWED, 63 

a radical change in the environment in any essential, the 
race becomes extinct. 

This last sentence ignores the fact that man and all 
individuality in the animal and vegetable kingdom die 
of old age without apparent cause in the environment; 
it also ignores the fact that races die apparently of old 
age without apparent external cause in the environment. 
A possible explanation of this is that Ethia's purpose in 
the concatenation being the creation of the highest type, 
and the greatest excellence in the type, when the 
individual or the race no longer progresses and there is 
not an earthly probability that they will, she removes 
them out of the way of others to follow. She as much 
as says, if you fellows are going to do no further good, 
I know some fellows that will, and out" goes their light. 
And it seems an admirable providential arrangement for 
old age learns nothing and there is not a shadow of 
turning in any part of his make up; but youth is pliable. 
If this is the God's decree, and we were certain parties, 
religions and philosophies, we would feel that old age is 
upon us, and every day we would tremble for our very life. 

But the order of creation of types of existence is 
what religion and science says it is; the higher types 
have succeeded the lower, and man has succeeded them 
all up to date. And there is a philosophy, a religion, a 
science, and a good deal of common sense in it all ; 
there is a line of gold woven into the whole thing, or 
perhaps it is silver, for it may be seen afar off. It is an 
observed fact that man lives by eating; and it must be 



(54 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

plain that a man would speedily starve to death spirit- 
ually on the spiritual food the parson offers him. Spirit 
runs throughout nature, everything has conjoined with 
the physical side a spirit side. Man's nature is dual 
and his food necessarily is dual to support that nature. 
If his food was altogether spiritual he would physically 
starve to death; if his food was altogether physical he 
would spiritually starve, with the parson stuffing him all 
the while with his sort of spirit food. Indeed the par- 
son's food may support life under other circumstances, 
but here man needs something more substantial. And 
this he finds conjoined with the physical food he eats. 
But man can't live on just anything. Dirt may do the 
lower vegetation, but higher vegetation don't do well on 
pure mineral matter, and to the animal and man this 
primitive food is altogether abomination and no go. 
Well, the objection is not so much that he cannot digest 
it, but that it has not in it the amount and character of 
spirit requisite to the support of the man spirit. And 
this is the objection which all existence urges to living 
on an order of existence too low on the scale, or that is 
too remote in the order of creation. Hence man lives 
on animal and vegetable food, but he eats only the seed 
of vegetation which has the quintessence of the vegetable 
spirit. Hence, the animal lives on vegetation; higher 
vegetation lives on the humus of the soil ; the lowest 
vegetation lives on mineral matter; and if mineral mat- 
ter fed, necessarily it would feed on elements. 

Well, if you reverse this order you see what of neces- 



1 J r I8E MEN R E VIE I VED. 05 

sity must have been the order of creation if the concat- 
enation was to be self-supporting. \ny other order 
would have been impossible to Ethia in the plan she 
seems to have marked out for herself. She could not 
create the higher existence until she had introduced 
through the immediate antecedent existence the requi- 
site spirit, which went to the plane fund and from there 
into the higher type. But in preparing to create the 
type, she was making ready the food to preserve it. 
The same antecedent existence that furnishes the spirit 
to create the type, furnishes the spirit food ou which it 
lives. 

But ail food consumed by the individual goes to a 
noumenal condition before coming forward again into 
the individual's make-up, and when it comes forward it 
takes on the precise nature of the individual feeding. 
It is pretty well known that a potato does not go bodily 
into the man's make up; the great purpose of digestion 
from the time his dinner goes into the pot till it goes 
into the blood is to take it to the noumenal condition. 
The spirit side of the food goes to the noumenal condi- 
tion also, and comes forward, taking on the precise 
nature of the spirit feeding. The brain of the animal is 
not spirit food of extra quality, because as soon as the 
animal dies the peculiar spirit of the nerve system leaves 
out and perhaps goes to the plane fund. 

Man usually takes his spirit and physical food con- 
joined in the same thing; the temperance man always 



66 F/IiriANISM: OB, THE 

does, and he can't eat enough to get drunk on; but the 
toper distills his corn, drinks the spirit side, and feeds 
the physical side to hogs making pork. 

Yet, we have never known a scientist invite his friend 
round the corner to take on a little force; he may think 
his whiskey would be the better of being dashed with 
more vegetable force, but he says nothing about it if 
the saloon man is loaded or even a masher. Of course 
the parson does not drink, but if he did he would never 
call for a glass of divine energy. All men drink spirits 
when it comes to a matter of imbibing, which perhaps 
is another proof that theory and practice do not always 
coincide. Idealists should learn a lesson from this. 

To all this man, from an high pedestal on which his 
vanity has placed him as the specially loved of God 
and foi whom all things were created, objects. He 
thanks the Lord that he is not as these publicans and 
sinners, the lower orders of existence; nothing but man 
has spirit, and that was breathed into him in the garden; 
man is an exception to all rules applicable to the animal 
and lower existence. Well no doubt the monkey 
thought that way while he was on the high pedestal 
before man came and pushed him off. And if a higher 
race succeeds man he, if not better posted, would think 
after a like fashion. 

Again, it is said of old that man is given dominion 
over all things; and so he is in a way and to an extent. 
But this domination comes of his superior capacities, or 
higher type of existence which the God gave the race 



WI&E MEN REVIEWED. 07 

in a natural way. He dominates space to an extent by 
his railroad, telegraph and telephone lines, but he is not 
as yet successful in the balloon, nor has any roan gone 
out to the moon in any sort of conveyance. He domi- 
nates the animal and vegetation by superior intelligence 
and the implements of his invention. But he don't 
dominate a tornado, nor a stroke of lightning, nor sun- 
shine, nor the movement of planets, nor another man 
stronger and wiser than he, to any alarming extent. 
Indeed there are very many things that man does not 
dominate with any great success, and perchance he has 
to refer only to his wife for an example. He dominates 
only to the extent of his capacities to dominate, and in 
this respect he is not unlike all things else. The lion 
and tiger dominate because of their intelligence, agility 
and great strength; but man dominates them by reason 
of his gun, and not by reason of revealed authority from 
God. The God gives man the dominion in this ease by 
giving him the intelligence to construct the gun and the 
skill to use it. If even the parson appeared before the 
lion in his lair, reading his authority for dominating all 
existence, it is our opinion the lion would not take off 
his coat on such requisition; but then the lion is not yet 
christianized. The weeds will dominate the grain if the 
man don't aid the grain in dominating the weeds. 
Everything, both high and low dominates to the extent 
of its ability to dominate, and this ability is given by 
God in the creation of the type. As a general rule, 
every type is given dominion over all lower types, and 



68 ETHIANISM: OB THE 

that authority is vested in the higher abilities of the 
type. But only God dominates in anything like an 
unlimited way. Man himself tries his hand at domi- 
nating over nature but nature in the end gets the better 
of him, and he leaves the field on the white charger, 
routed at all points on the physical line of battle. 

Still again, it is said that after creating man, God 
rested; and no doubt he did, from actual creation, for 
we have not heard of his creating any race since. What 
he will do later no man knows; and what he has been 
doing in other planets, stars, and other systems of exist- 
ence, only the God and the intelligences of those sys- 
tems know. But even on the Earth we have no assur- 
ance that this rest is to be an eternal one. After having 
rested a season, he may create a higher type than man. 
Indeed, we have no indubitable assurance that the God 
is resting at all. He may be preparing the way for the 
creation of the higher type, and when all things are 
ready, he may spring the new enterprise on the public, 
just as he has been doing throughout the history of the 
concatenation. If such thing should happen, no doubt 
man will be disgusted just as the monkey was before 
him. 

And one wonders if this rest after creating man was 
the first rest the God has ever taken since the "begin- 
ning." Did he not rest in like manner at the end of 
each day, or creative period? Science gives us great 
good reason for thinking that the God rested after each 
creative period, and that during those periods of "rest" 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 09 

he was but preparing the way for the new and higher 
enterprise. It is said that in the history of the concat- 
enation there June been periods of much creation, fol- 
lowed by periods ol no overt act of creation, and that 
we simply live in one of those periods of no overt act 
of creation. But if Ethia is constantly introducing 
into the concatenation, through living existence, the 
requisite spirit for a new creation, she can scarcely be 
said to be resting because committing no overt act. A 
man is not building a house while laying in the material, 
but is he resting for that reason V Indeed there is some- 
thing grotesque in the idea of a God " resting," as if 
forsooth he was out of wind, actually gasping for breath. 
To all this the man from an high pedestal objects. 
Man is the ultimate creation, and he was not created as 
other things were; his body was made of dust and his 
spirit breathed into him, in the garden. The God is 
satisfied with man as the highest type of earth existence; 
nothing more could be wished for ; all things are lovelv 
and the goose sits on an high pedestal ; it is finished, 
and the God rests evermore from his works. This view 
no doubt tickles man's vanity, and is the clearest proof 
possible of the genuine humility of those who go about 
dressed in sackcloth and ashes, and who live on gall 
and wormwood. But perhaps the parson's proverbial 
fried chicken accounts for the whole thing. Xo man 
can, perhaps, be truly humble on high living and a good 
salary. Xo such stumbling blocks were ever thrown in 
our way. 



70 



ETHIANISM: OR THE 



Ethia, the Infinite Absolute, fills all space and all 
time. She is distinct from her creations yet within 
them all. Reason apprehends her in her absolute char- 
acter, the senses and consciousness know her in her 
manifested character in the universe; and we may conjec- 
ture her in other systems of existence. In the "begin- 
ning" she created the earth, but that creation was a 
manifestation of herself in earth space in certain quali- 
ties; manifested in physical qualities she is the physical 
earth; in spirit qualities, the spirit earth. As to the 
order in time and succession of her manifestations in 
earth space, it is what the Bible and science says it is. 
And up to this time has resulted in the concatenation as 
it is with man as the highest type. As to forming any 
mental presentation of the how of the non-manifested 
Ethia becoming the finite manifested earth, it is simply 
impossible to our capacities. Nor can we form any 
mental presentation of the how of the creation or intro- 
duction of new types of existence in the concatenation. 
But common sense has no greater incapacity in this 
direction than the Biblical writers themselves exhibit. 
Those writers claiming, or at least, being accorded inspi- 
ration, tell us that God created the earth in certain order 
of type, but that gives us no mental presentation of the 
how of the introduction of the type. It is presumable 
they had no such concept themselves. The only effort 
made to give us a concept of the introduction of a race is 
in the case of man, and all they tell us in this case is, 
that man's body was made of dust and his spirit was 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 71 

breathed into him. But that is a very sorry and super- 
ficial mental presentation. As to the breathing we can 
only conceive of it as being done as a man would do such 
thing; and any one could make a mud man, but chang- 
ing that into flesh, and after scooping him out, putting 
in the requisite machinery is the John part, and of all 
this we are given no mental presentation. So that the 
account only amounts to a statement that God created 
man both spirit and body. This all men believe 
whether they have read the Biblical statement or not. 

Of course if Ethia were going to make a new creation 
now, she would make the physical man of the physical 
earth and the spirit man from the spirit earth. She 
would, in a way, breathe into the physical side the con- 
joined spirit. She might do this direct from herself in 
Ether as she fills all space and permeates all existence. 
But it is perhaps not the correct thing to speculate how 
the thing might be if we have any scientific evidence of 
how it really is. We think the scientific evidence is 
that Ethia breathes into the new type, spirit through 
antecedent types. 

There are three positions here: two held by large and 
respectable classes, th-e other coming as if from one crying 
in the wilderness. The position of religion is, that what 
spirit there is in the concatenation comes direct to the 
type having it from the God outside and independent of 
the concatenation. This is a distinct, separate, inde- 
pendent, direct creation by the God. Science says it is 
evolution, not creation. Whether for science there ever 



72 ETHIANISM: OB THE 

was a direct creation, or if there was where creation 
ended and evolution began, we do not know. Was the 
elemental or gaseous, the "without form and void" 
earth, an evolution, or a creation? If an evolution it 
was an evolution from Ethia in Ether, and the after 
evolution is on up trom the elemental earth to the earth 
of to-day. Was there in the history ot the concatena- 
tion any further evolution from Ethia in Ether after the 
elemental earth, on the spirit side, or the force side if 
you prefer? Or was the concatenation as we now have 
it altogether an evolution from the elemental earth? If 
altogether from the elemental and mineral earth, how is 
the higher spirit or force development of vegetation and 
the animal and man to be accounted for? Where does 
it come from, or does it naturally grow up out of "noth- 
ing"? Evolution tells us the new type grows up out of 
a former type, the antecedent type by insensible degrees 
changes into the new, the monkey by insensible degrees 
becomes man. Well there is a change, and it is greatly 
in the spirit nature; where does the improvement come 
from? From the environment? But the environment 
don't seem to be running down at the heel. Where but 
from Ethia in Ether whence all spirit and mattter origin- 
ally came. Any improvement in the concatenation after 
the mineral earth supposes an influx of spirit from Ethia in 
Ether or outside the concatenation, that is, an influx of 
what others call divine energy, and science, force. Well, 
given the influx, science says it came into the monkey 
thereby changing, in the ages, certain monkeys into cer- 



WISh MEN REVIEWED. 73 

tain men; there is a long line of transition from certain 
monkeys to man, and this transition is the result of the 
influx along- the line. But the trouble with the transi- 
tion is that it has left no trace of itself behind; there is 
none on the earth now, and none in geological strata. 
If the transition tail, from the ordinary monkey's tail 
on up to man's apology for a tail, was still on the earth, 
or the transition tail all along from two feet long to the 
apology had left itself imbedded in geological rock, the 
tiling would have been plain enough. But unfortu- 
nately the transition has all dropped out leaving only 
the besrinnino; and the end, the monkey and the man. 
How very fortunate it would have been if some transi- 
tion monkey had left his transition tail or some other 
part of his transital appendage imbedded in some rock. 
But the ape didn't, and we must needs content ourselves 
with the evolution theory as the only connecting link 
between man and monkey. 

The man crying in the wilderness of uncertainties 
has this to say. The creation of the entire concatena- 
tion and in all its time is the act of Ethia operative 
from Ether. You may call it evolution if you choose. 
Ethia creates by sending in spirit, or manifesting as 
such. She sends this necessarily to antecedent exist- 
ence : this antecedent existence dies ; the physical side 
goes to the matter fund if not used as food; the spirit 
side goes to a spirit fund on the plane, if it does not, go 
at once into another individual as spirit food, or out to 
Ether as a conscious personality. Spirit, going to 



74 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

the plane fund. or in air, in process of time, there 
is enough in bank to set a new enterprise, or race, 
up in business, and the type is created ; the physical 
side coming from the matter fund and the spirit side 
from the spirit plane fund. As we have said we can 
form no concept of how the thing would be did. But 
is religion or even science any more fortunate? This spirit 
plane fund is something like an ebb and flow spring; 
it does not overflow till full to overflowing. Antecedent 
to man, it is said many noble types of animal existence 
became extinct. This, we may suppose filled the reser- 
voir to overflowing and man and some other types were 
created. It is said the periods of creation are anteceded 
by long periods of no creation; during the periods of no 
creation the reservoir is filling; the God is resting from 
all overt acts of creation but is filling the reservoir 
preparatory to resuming more active work. It is also 
said that when a new species is introduced it at once 
has a wide dispersion, it simultaneously appears in 
various parts of the Earth. Well, it must be remem- 
bered that this reservoir is as large as all out of doors, 
and we may suppose it liable when once full to overflow 
at any and many points. Hence the type may be created 
at many points on the earth at the same time ; hence 
man may have come forth from many gardens of Eden. 
It is a yearly experience that an oak, after producing 
a crop of acorns, takes a whole season of spiritual recup- 
eration before it has the requisite spirit fund to bestow 
on another crop. And the animal after the act that 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 75 

perpetuates the race must needs take a season of recup- 
eration. These smaller facts seem to have some sort 
of relation to the much larger fact of Ethia's creation of 
races. The individual lays up in himself the spirit to 
bestow on his descendants; Ethia lays up in the plane 
fund the requisite spirit to bestow on the new type of 
creation. In every case she introduces the spirit 
through antecedent existence; she "breathes" spirit into 
the individual which goes to a general fund, and from 
that to the new individual or race. Can you form any 
mental presentation of why or how the oak starts up an 
acorn ; then why wrestle with an act of Ethia in the 
creation of a race? We can't go behind the returning 
board. 

Creation dons not come as direct from Ethia as relig- 
ion maintains, but much more direct perhaps than 
science concedes. If to the heinous crime of calling 
Ethia an atom, science adds that of denying her the 
creation of races, then we must fear that the science 
outlook for ultimate salvation is most discouraging. 
Ethia creates types or races in the indirect way indi- 
cated, but when the race is established she deems it safe 
to leave it to the race to perpetuate itself. Ethia is 
accountable for the creation of races, but not for the 
individual's conduct, for the individual acts on its own 
responsibility. Nor can you form any concept of Ethia 
from the qualities of the individual or his conduct, but 
you can from the character and order of creation of 
races. When Ethia acts in the concatenation as a God 



76 ETHIANISM: OB THE 

in that you can know her as a God; in anything else 
you know the individual. 

If we judge of Ethia's purpose in the concatenation 
by her acts as a God in the creation of races, we must 
suppose her purpose in the concatenation to be the crea- 
tion of the highest type and the highest perfection in the 
type; for if there is anything seen throughout the con- 
catenation it is progress; progress from lower to higher 
types of conscious personality. And when the individ- 
ual aids her in this purpose he is doing her will; which 
no doubt would be a more acceptable sacrifice than 
much fat cattle, yea, than any amount of lip and a house 
full of ceremonies. And the beauty of the thing is that 
while we are doing her will we are building ourselves 
and others up in all the beatitudes, and it is therefore 
no sacrifice at all. The individual cannot produce a 
higher type but he can perpetuate his own and aid in 
carrying it on to a higher excellence. In this way he is 
a savior to himself and others. But the best of men 
are not saviors to any alarming extent. Christ was a 
savior to the race to the extent that he made it better by 
his example and teachings. Ditto Mohammed; alle 
samee Confucius. 

But has Ethia created all things in the Earth for Man? 
Did she create the balance of the universe for man? 
Did she create other systems of existence for man? Is 
she full bent herself to make all things conspire to fur- 
ther man's interests? What purpose for man do those 
remote fixed stars serve? And those other systems of 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 77 

existence of which he knows nothing and that affect 
him not, what good do they do him? And why should 
the infinite Ethia select from the infinity of existence, 
man alone as worthy of love, protection and a heaven? 
The thing is absurd on its very face to every intelligence 
except the man who has in his own conceit placed him- 
self on an high pedestal. And no race of people ever 
placed themselves on an higher pedestal than did the 
Jews in their relation to God. And it is they who orig- 
inated for us the preposterous importance which man 
has in absolute affairs. If we believe what they say 
about it, they were the chosen people of God; he looked 
after their interest, so much so that on one occasion he 
explicitly tells their captain to march around by a certain 
mulberry tree and thus smite the enemy with a mighty 
smote. That seems a small business for an infinite 
absolute God, but it w said he did it all the same. True 
this God never made his chosen people great in war, 
peace, the arts, science, philosophy or anything like that. 
But he did make them a great people, to themselves and 
to all others of like belief, in the religion they proclaim. 
Whether their neighbors of India, Persia, and China 
were greater in their religious concepts is a mooted point 
with many. But those other religious concepts did not 
come to us; the Jewish concept did, and we adopted it, 
grafting it on to the line of civilization we were already 
pursuing. And straightway it is said that Europe and 
America owes its civilization to the Bible and the Jews. 
If we had adopted from India the Vedan religion then 



78 E1HIANISM: OR THE 

we would have owed all to the Vedas and the Indians. 
The point is, we Western people would never have 
amounted to anything if we had not taken on an eastern 
religion; we wouldn't know beans when the sack's open. 
Now, the intrinsic merits of a religion must be judged 
by its influence on the character of the people where it 
originates. Has the Jewish religion in this day made 
the Jewish people in his own country any better than 
the Indian religion has made the Indian people to-day 
in his own country ? Even this is not a correct test for 
extraneous influence, other than religious concepts, have 
a very greatly predominating influence on the develop- 
ment of a people. But are the Jews, in their own coun- 
try a more civilized people than Indians, Persians and 
Chinese? ' Anything else, European and American peo- 
ple do not owe to the religion they have adopted; but to 
their character as a people and their environment, to their 
own line of march in civilization. To say that we would 
have no sense of justice, and the fitness of things, if we 
had not learned it through the Jews, or that science 
would make no progress without the Jewish concept of 
God, when science proceeds on an entirely different con- 
cept of the noumenon of existence which antagonizes at 
all points the Jewish concept, is to utter unmitigated 
nonsense; and it could only come from brains in which 
the intellect is swamped by the emotions. It is zeal, 
and not the judgment, talking. The Greek and Roman 
were superior to those Eastern people in very many 
respects. Did they owe that to the Jewish concept of 



1 1 TSE MEN JRE VIE WED. 79 

God, and the Mosaic law of which they knew nothing? 
If so, then of a truth coming events cast their shadow- 
before them. Of course those people who think the 
whole business of life is to worship the non- mani- 
fested God, neglecting individuality or the manifested 
God, say that these things the Greek and Roman 
knew and practiced were no good ; they were the 
things of sin and in the low grounds of sorrow ; we 
deal with God beyond the sky. But in this they only 
show the difference between Eastern and Western peo- 
ple. The East contemplates God neglecting the indi- 
vidual ; the West attends to the individual neglecting 
the God. The East takes to the contemplation of God 
naturally as a duck to water; the West is prone to wan- 
der after the things of this life, the individual, and lord! 
he feels it, and he finds that waiting on the Lord one 
hour in the week rather irksome, unless his set is 
there and the music good. Owing to this difference in 
the character of the two people, the parson finds it a dif- 
ficult matter to graft an Eastern religion on a Western 
people. And he finds it necessary, and also consonant 
with his own character, to modify the Eastern religion to 
suit the Western taste; and he finds further that without 
such adaptation the thing is no go. Hence the religion, 
as applied by the Western intellect, is not exactly the 
religion originating in the Eastern brain. As the Wes- 
tern man is a man of great personality, he conceives of 
God as a personality which the East does not do. And 
a necessary consequence of it all is, that it requires 



SO ETHIANISM: OR 1HE 

numerous churches, much sermonizing and a fabulous 
expenditure of shekels to bring the Western man up to 
anything like the Eastern standard of religion; he finds 
it an up-hill business leading the Western man to God. 

But this is greatly the parson's fault. If, instead of 
teaching the Western man that God is a personality in a 
local heaven, he taught him that God is the infinite abso- 
lute manifested in all individuality, then he would have 
much less difficulty in getting him to contemplate God 
in the individual, whether he ever succeeded in drawing 
his attention to the non-manifested God in Ether or not. 
And it is in the individual, as manifested there, that the 
Eastern enthusiast contemplates God; for he has not 
capacity to contemplate him elsewhere. The Eastern intel- 
lect, all the same as the Western, can only apprehend by 
reason, intuition, or faith, if you must have it, the abso- 
lute God in Ether; but if he contemplates him neces- 
sarily it is in the individual or when manifested to his 
capacities. We hope the parson sees his godly line of 
work. If he follows this line, results will be more 
gratifying, and, at the same time, he will have the con- 
solation of more correctly interpreting the religion he 
represents. 

But to return to our immediate subject. The God of 
the Jews remained the peculiar property of the Jews so 
long as it was exclusively the religion of the Jews. But 
when this religion was adopted by the Gentiles, or was 
conveyed to them, the God was a part of the convey- 
ance; and thus the God slipped through the Jewish fin- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 81 

gers, and the whole human nice had him. In other 
words, the whole human race climbed up on an high 
pedestal and sat there with the Jews all the same as in 
a synagogue. Whereas, before, the God was the exclu- 
sive property of the Jews, managing all things in their 
interest and fighting their enemies, whoever they might 
he, with horns, locusts and all such ; he is now man's 
God and manages all things in his favor, aiding him in 
his fight with the world, the flesh and the devil. But 
even while he was the exclusive property of the Jews, 
fightiug their battles, not only against the world, the 
flesh and the devil, hut against the balance of the human 
race as well — for whom, at that time, he don't seem to 
have cared much — all things were not lovely for the 
Jews; they were not perfect in themselves, were often 
in bondage, weeds grew, rats multiplied, and stones pre- 
dominated on the face of the country when good soil 
apparently would have answered a much better purpose. 
And after his transference to the race, still all things 
were not lovely for man ; the goose didn't always hang 
high, which it ought to have done, for the man always 
on an high pedestal; man had his own short-comings, 
and there were many things not only useless to him, but 
even inimical to his well-being. Well, an explanation 
is in order; indeed, it is imperative. 

If Ethia the infinite absolute, is the God whose pur- 
pose is to reach the highest type in the concatenation, 
regardless of the interests of any particular type in van 



82 E1HIAMSM: OR THE 

particular manner, then the tiling is plain enough. 
Man is her special favorite as the highest type, but like 
any other mother she gives her other children a modi- 
cum of love and a living chance, especially as she can 
use them in her business, or in her progress on to the 
highest type. She begins at the elemental earth and 
builds up. And she builds up by introducing spirit 
into the concatenation, which thing she can do in the 
weed as well as in the cornstock. She has thus built up 
the concatenation from the elemental earth to the earth 
of to-day with man on top. But as this top position 
given him by Ethia does not satisfy man, he climbs on 
up to an high pedestal of his own heft. 

Well, when Ethia manifests herself as individuality, 
she turns it loose and henceforward that individuality 
acts on its own responsibility and in its own interests; 
and in doing so often one individual clashes with another 
in the matter of interest, and becomes evil to it, if not 
the very devil himself. These things in acting out their 
nature pay no more attention to man than to anything 
else. Snow falls directly toward the earth from the 
roof above, even if the parson and his tile hat stands 
beneath. Of course the parson is disgusted and per- 
chance says, the devil! But Ethia says no, not the 
devil; it was I who gave the snow that nature; but I 
aimed to give you the sense to know what the snow 
would do under certain circumstapces ; you should have 
stood from under, and then you would have had no 
occasion to accuse the devil of a thing he didn't do. 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 83 

And, says she to the parson, furthermore, by the way, 
don't hereafter in the pulpit accuse the devil of things 
I'm accountable for: it's not eomplimeutary. But not 

only snow goes its way regardless of man's interest, but 
the tornado turns not aside from the grain Held nor the 
city. Indeed we do not find that one individuality pays 
any regard to the interest of another in it?- conduct 
until we come up to the animal and man; and even tljey 
do no serious damage to themselves on that line. The 
animal has some regard for its young and its kind. 
Man generally begins charity at home, and his benevo- 
lence elsewhere is not unbounded, which is shown iu 
the many injustices that men inflict on one another. 
The result of it all is that there is much evil in the land 
for man; indeed, the very devil is turned loose. But 
to everything else there is also much evil in the same 
way ; to the farmer's crop the weed is an unmitigated 
evil. There is evil in man'- environment when that 
environment iu any way operates against him. But are 
you to blame Ethia for that? She makes no pretense 
of having made everything for man, except as previous 
existence lead up to his creation, and as that existence is 
available by his capacities for his preservation, man 
must fight his own battle- with the capacities he has 
under the environment he lives in; he takes his chances 
with the rest, but in hi- higher capacities he has greatly 
the advantag 

But not only is there evil in man's environment, but 
there is evil in his own citadel, in his own nature. He 



84 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

is not any too wise, his capacities arc short, his emotions, 
will and act is not always what it ought to be, some- 
times he is imbecile, at other times vicious, and often his 
opinions are outrageous. But will you fall out with 
Ethia about that? She makes no pretenseof having made 
man perfect; and if any man has said that for her he per- 
haps had not any commission from on high. She has 
made man the most perfect type yet created on Earth; 
and to the extent of the capacities she has given him, she 
has given him dominion over lower existence. Further 
than that the deponent saith not. It is doubtful if even 
Ethia could have made man any more perfect at this 
stage of the game than he is, with the material on hand 
and in the line of creation she seems to have marked out 
for herself. 

Then there is evil in man's nature and in his environ- 
ment, and it plays the very devil with him. But at the 
same time there is much good in his nature and environ- 
ment, and therein is his salvation. But Ethia is no 
shirk; she shoulders the responsibility for the whole 
thing, both for the good and the bad; for she made the 
concatenation as it is. If man is not satisfied with it he 
has a poor way of helping himself. But our private 
opinion is that he ought to be thankful he was not made 
a Jona gourd vine nor even a monkey. 

But the man on an high pedestal, for whom the world 
was specially made and to whom the God is a loving- 
father, has some difficulty in harmonizing the loving 
character of the creator with the manv unlovable things 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 85 

in the creation; and he finds it impossible to do SO with- 
out the introduction of a third party who serves thepiir-; 
pose of a scape-goat. There is much evil in man's 
nature and environment. This could not be the work 
of an allwise, omnipotent loving father, who made the 
world to order and gave man dominion over it. This 
God could only create the good ; some one else must 
shoulder the had; and this the devil does with apparent 
cheerfulness. This devil usually represents the evil in 
man's nature and environment, but we may suppose he 
plays the devil among the stars all the same ay he does 
with us. 

Man comes up out of prehistoric times with shocking 
bad manners and a very sorry reputation for intelligence. 
The presumption from this would be that the beginning 
of the race was still worse, and that man is much more 
perfect to-day than in that beginning. And the pre- 
sumption is strengthened by the fact that the concatena- 
tion has been a case of progress since it began in the 
" without form and void." 

But the man on an high pedestal says that's not the 
way of it: a perfect (rod and loving father makes a 
perfect man, and give- him a perfect environment, and 
he does so straightway, and not through any manner of 
evolution. Man is quite apart from the balance of the 
concatenation; he was made of dust on the physical 
side, and the God breathed into him a perfect spirit; 
and he and his wife were domiciled in a garden some- 



8G ETHIANISM: OR THE 

whore in Asia. The devil tempts them; they fall; and 
death, hell and destruction is in the land. 

Now there are some things about all this that one fails 
to understand. In perfect spirits where is the element 
of descension, where the blind side for the devil to come 
up on, the weak point for him to attack? Again, what 
effect could the act of these two have had on the bal- 
ance of the concatenation? If it be said the change is in 
man, which changes the relation, then we say it would 
be impossible to place any being in man's place with a 
physical nature and physical wants, that would not be 
antagonized in manv respects by his environment if that 
environment had a physical nature and physical wants. 
Still again, was it the original intention of the God 
that only these two beings should exist, and was the 
infinities of existence all made for these two, who had 
everything they wanted in the garden? We have had a 
suspicion that Ethia's ultimate purpose in the creation 
of the concatenation was to raise up spirits, numerously; 
to take out to herself in their conscious personality as 
soon as she has reached a type worthy that honor. But 
if this other be true, then we are quite off in our reck- 
oning. 

Opinion is like architecture, any material that fits in 
the structure is good for that structure, but the style of 
the whole thing may be in bad taste. Man's exaggerated 
opinion of himself as a race necessitates that he be of 
great importance to God, and that the God be a loving 
lather to him. This necessitates that man originally be 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 87 

made perfect, and be given a perfect environment ; this 
necessitates the fall; this necessitates a devil to bring; it 
about; this necessitates a saviour to undo the devil's 
work: he must perfect man's nature, remove the antago- 
nisms of his environment, restoring him to paradise; 
and thus the character of the loving father is made 
whole. But what proof outside his vanity has man that 
the race was ever perfect? If never perfect he had no 
occasion to fall, for he was down enough already. And 
if he didn't fall what becomes of the devil? If the 
race started as only a slight improvement on the monkey, 
then every man who aids it in getting as far away from 
the monkey as is possible to the race, is a saviour to the 
extent of his saving influence. 

If the God made the concatenation as it is because he 
chose to do so : if in the plan of creation, the God appears 
to have mapped out for himself, it was necessary to begin 
with the elemental earth and build on up to man; and if 
in this line of creation it was necessary to give man in 
the beginning an imperfect nature, as he had done the 
monkey before him. stamping man's nature, however, 
with the potentiality of evolnting out of many of his 
imperfections — then that theology which, on account of 
these short-comings in man's nature and environment, 
hold- God up in the pulpit as a coin, good on one side, 
but the very devil on the reverse, will never see kingdom 
come. If you know better than God how the 
world ought to have been created then it is a great pity 
you were not by to advise. To affix a tail and prefix 



88 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

horns to God, smearing him with Mason's blacking as 
some artists do, because forsooth, the God has not seen 
cause to attend exclusively to man's interests in the 
matter of creation, is simply monstrous. One shudders 
to think about it; he shuts his eyes and turns away to 
keep from thinking about it. Xo man will ever reach 
heaven on a ticket like that. Talk about humility, here 
is the place for it. So long as man sits out on an 
high pedestal basking- in the exclusive love of the father, 
all affectation of humility is the purest of buncombe. 
The devil took Christ up into an high mountain and, 
showing him the world proposed signing a quit claim if he 
would only worship him. Christ refused, but the man on 
an high pedestal takes it all in, and in payment gives the 
devil great prominence in infinite affairs. He forgets 
that not even a sparrow falls but that a note is taken of 
the fact. 

Fins devil is no good as an explanation of the present 
state of affairs. Account for him as you may, you can't 
get rid of the fact that the God who is omniscient knew 
what he would do. And if the God made a devil to do 
certain work most men see little difference between that 
and doing it himself. The straightforward way is to 
create- the world independently and without assistance 
from irresponsible and evil-disposed persons; the other 
way is a bunglesome way gotten up by man in a desperate 
effort to harmonize the world as it is with man's grotesque 
opinion of his own importance in it. 

Ethia holds herself responsible for the concatenation 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 

as it is. She lias no devil; like Massachusetts, "she 
Deeds none." She needs neither "encomiums/' nor 
palliations. Moreover, she says to the human race, you 
must save yourselves; I have stamped on your nature 
the potentiality of doing so; and yon had as well get 
down to business. I have no occasion to send a savior 
to resconcile me to a world that I have created and am 
still creating in my own way. My manner of creating 
the world suits me, and if the man on an high pedestal 
don't like the style, let him get up a world to his taste. 
Which thing he does, but it is only a world created by a 
brain in which the intellect is dethroned by the emotions, 
as he will find out later. 

The most preposterous thing in theology is to put it 
upon their God that he has made the world so out of 
whack that the postulation of a devil is the only possible 
way out of the difficulty. Will the God laugh at their 
tolly or damn them for it? It i- one of the eases in 
which they had better pray that the laugh he turned 
against them; it were better than the other. 

As to the ••tall" and the necessary accompanying ma- 
chinery, we have a theory which we think is sound and 
perhaps empty sound, hut which we hesitate to perpe- 
trate because of the shock it may give the "narves" of 
the public mind. It all races of men started from the 
same creative point, doubtless that point was somewhere 
in the temperate region* of Asia; for those peoples there 
seem to he much older than people.- elsewhere. Just 
how large this garden was it is impossible to know in 



90 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

the absence of an authorized survey. But it seems to 
have abounded in all the fruits, and its elimate was of 
the best, since the people there and then wore no clothes. 
In process of time this garden people, having exhausted 
all other enterprises, began philosophising and getting 
up religion; and in those religions and philosophies they 
saw God face to face and talked with him. Naturally 
enough after a time, or perhaps times on times, the 
people of the garden became too thick to thrive. And 
they ate of the tree of knowledge, which was a knowledge 
of countries outside the garden. In plain words they 
emigrated, or perchance they were hustled out of the 
garden for petty larceny, getting up labor riots, or be- 
cause of Nihilistic tendencies. Well, those who went 
north very naturally found out they were naked before 
they reached the north pole, and donned fig leaves; 
while those who went south became equally wise and 
put on palm leaf fans. And as they went they '-'fell" 
into ignorance and forgetlulness of the true Gcd that 
they had left behind them in the religions and philoso- 
phies of their ancestors. And if they went forth as 
criminals they were not any too good to begin on, and 
in accordance with the law and the police the flaming 
sword of justice was suspended over the gate to prevent 
their return. Now what evil influence in their nature 
or environment originally caused them to go to the bad 
in the garden we do not know; but we know full well 
why they persisted in their downward course after leav- 
ing the gates of the city. It was because of their having 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 91 

to battle with the hoot owls on the way; they didn't 
have time for family prayer or other refinements, for 
their present urgent imperative business was with the 
hoot owls. They laid aside the refinements till a more 
convenient season; and as the war with the hoot owls 
was a long, long, wearisome one, they kept their refine- 
ments and family prayers laid away so long that they 
finally forgot all about them until the Jews from the 
garden sent them a gentle reminder in the scriptures and 
the apostles. It is said the Gods of all peoples have a 
resemblance to the Gods of the garden, which is natural 
enough if all peoples originally came from that garden; 
it is a reminiscense of better days in the long ago of the 
race. After these people went out from the garden, the 
garden people most likely forgot all about them until 
in Europe the Greek and Roman took on such promi- 
nence as to attract their attention. The garden folks 
then concluded that perhaps after all these fellows were 
worth saving, and the Jews kindly sent them an install- 
ment of their religious belief which these western folks 
made over to suit their peculiar circumstances and in- 
tellectual nature. But in their long fight with the hoot 
owls they had changed their view; they learned to attend 
to the individual; for in the individual lurked both 
danger and consolation for them. Hence, when their 
attention was again called to God they gave him a more 
decided personality than did the Jews, and than is con- 
sonant with fact. \w the actual battles of life for man 



92 



F/ririAXJSM: OR THE 



God takes on the personal character, but to the man in 
repose God is infinite, absolute. 

As an example of the "fall" that the world, the flesh 
and the devil as represented by the hoot owls will give 
a man, one need only look to the early settling of Amer- 
ica. There is no disguising the fact that the early 
settlers "fell" more or less into ignorance and boorish- 
ness while battling with the American hoot-owl ; and 
an Englishman would perhaps tell us that we are not 
altogether well of it yet. And, just as Americans when 
done with the hoot owls, and realizing their lost and 
ruined condition intellectually and otherwise, looked 
back to England and Europe for deliverance and a 
savior, so it is claimed the whole outside world in its 
lost and ruined philosophical and religious condition 
must look back to the original garden for deliverance 
and a savior. As we have said, the Jews kindly offer us 
theirs and many there be who accept. Others look to 
India, Persia and even the heathen Chinee for deliver- 
ance and a savior, which they think they find in the 
writers of those countries and their teachings. And 
those countries seem perfectly willing to furnish us. 
Indeed, all people are liberal in this respect; even the 
flowery kingdom and son of the sun will supply the 
barbarian on almost any sort of requisition. 

But here and there among Western peoples there are 
those who do not look back to the garden for deliver- 
ance from ignorance and vice, and for a knowledge of 
the trueGod. These men propose delivering themselves; 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 93 

they philosophize for themselves ; but in doing so they 
avail themselves of all the means of grace that have 
gone before ; they avail themselves of all the religions, 
sciences and philosophies of this and other ages in deliv- 
ering themselves from ignorance and in arriving at a 
true idea of God. 

These men. of course, do not think those garden folks 
infallible, otherwise they would accept unhesitatingly 
their teachings. One thing certain they are not all 
infallible, and whether any of them were, is to be deter- 
mined not by their assumptions of infallibility, but by 
the character of their teachings. The proof of the 
pudding is always in the eating. 

The fact of the business seems to be that the East ran 
its course in philosophy and religion, and that it ran 
substantially the same course that the West is now 
taking. But the East got through first, for they began 
first. The human mind everywhere is substantially the 
same ; the facts on which are based philosophy and 
religion are everywhere the same , and very naturally 
the evolution of human concept will be the same every- 
where, and the ultimate conclusions will be the same. 
In India the inspired books, the Yedas, are followed by 
books of interpretation which get farther and farther 
away from a literal rendering until finally one 
of these books is sometimes called philosophy, some 
times religion. Then follows science with an atom 
noumenon ; then Materialism and Pantheism ; and 



94 ETHIANISM: OB THE 

finally an absolute God from whom an atom issuing the 
universe is created. 

In the West our religious books and views are not 
native horn, but come to us from the same garden in 
which the Vedas grew; for, evidently, if we were to trace 
back our direct line of religious evolution, we would 
ultimately strike the Jew square in the stomach in his 
own country. After these religious books comes various 
theological renderings, getting farther away from literal 
interpretation, until listening in one of our liberal taber- 
nacles one wonders is it philosophy or is it religion, just 
as in India they wondered before us. Then we have 
Materialism, then Pantheism ; finally the infinite absolute 
God. 

In India this infinite absolute God is said to be a 
return to orthodoxy, and so it is in some sense. Men 
leave orthodoxy when they go off after the atom God, 
Matter God, and Pantheistic God. But they are not 
satisfied and return to the infinite absolute God. In the 
meantime orthodoxy itself has not been stationary. It 
has gone on from one concept of God to another, all the 
while divesting him of his personal character, and get- 
ting away from a literal insistence, until they too arrive 
at the infinite absolute God. At that point religion and 
philosophy meet, and one can call it philosophy or 
religion, according to taste. Philosophy does not return 
to orthodoxy, nor does orthodoxy go on to philosophy. 
They approach each other and meet at a point where the 
parson can preach religion, and the philosopher philos- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 95 

ophize philosophy, yet both teach the same thing. This 
evidently means that do matter by what avenue you 
approach you ultimately reach the concept of God as 
infinite, absolute; all avenues converge to the same point. 
It you come up in science and philosophy through the 
atom, matter and pantheistic God, when you arrive at 
the infinite absolute God, you find the parson already 
arrived there through his religious books. And when 
thus met, instead of wrangling about the terms you use 
and the avenue of approach, it would seem to be the cor- 
rect thing to embrace with all brotherly love in the 
essence found. 






ETHIANISM: OR THE 



CHAPTER V. 

GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD. 

The Noumenon of Movement in the thing acting. — All things 
have the Intelligence aud Will of their own acts — They act 
Voluntarily and not on Compulsion— The Sun Mass — A 
straight line— Laws of Nature — Providential Government. 

Ethia manifested in certain qualities and attributes is 
the universe; but in that manifestation she becomes the 
individual, and the individual thereafter acts out the 
character the God has given it in the race, towards its 
environment. The race established, it multiplies in its 
individuals, and the God is not responsible for this nor 
any of the acts of the individual except in so far as she 
gave character to the race when she created it. The 
race receives its character from God, and is placed in a 
certain environment. The individual receives his char- 
acter from the race, and he is born to certain surroundings 
in that environment. Up to this time the individual 
has had nothing to do with himself; the God gives char- 
acter to the race, the race to the individual, and the 
child must needs begin the generation life with the 
character the God and his ancestors have given him, 
and under the immediate environment to which he is 
born. And if the child dies at birth, it must needs take 
into the next life, if such there be, the character the 



WISE MEN RE VI EW ED. 97 

God and Ids ancestry have given, which no doubt is 
great consolation to those who say there are children in 
hell not a span long. But if the child dies not, it 
grows on to maturity by feeding on the environment, 
which toad takes on its character in the act of feeding. 
As this generation individual grows to maturity, and so 
long as it lives, it applies the potentialities or nature, or 
capacities which the God and its ancestry gave it, to its 
environment, and thus has knowledge, sensation, emo- 
tion, will, and act. It acts out its nature toward its 
environment, and necessarily the individual's conduct is 
decided by both its nature and environment, and the 
nature and environment were determined by the God 
through antecedents. That ^eems to be the whole outfit, 
and is, as far as we are able to comprehend the matter. 

But certain extremists who seem to fail to take in the 
whole field at one view, and who therefore look at only 
small areas, are not content with this. 

Certain parties will say man is a creature of circum- 
stances, or that circumstances make the man; ignoring 
the character the God and his ancestry have given the 
man. Even so eminent a man as the author of "Con- 
flict Between Religion and Science" quotes Calif Ali as 
saying that men are more like their times than their 
fathers, and approves of the remark as eminently philos- 
ophical and profound. 

Certain other parties tell us circumstances have noth- 
ing to do with the matter; the man simply acts out his 






98 F.THTAXTSM: OR THE 



nature, as a clock wound up; he is automatic; fate, des- 
tiny, has him in tow. Still another party will tell us 
God is responsible for it all; he gave man in the race 
and through his ancestry the nature he has, his intel- 
lectual, emotional, will, and physical nature; and this 
nature acts itself out toward the environment the God 
gave it; and the individual is in no wise responsible for 
his conduct. He ought not therefore to be punished by 
the law nor the gospel; he ought not be put in jail nor 
in hell; the officers of the law are a nuisance and the 
devil not any better; and even the God himself ought 
not punish man with the deteriorated nature his acts 
bring him, for he can but do as he does do. 

Well Ethia creates the race, stamping it with certain 
character, and the race perpetuates itself from genera- 
tion to generation in the individual. She stamped the 
race with a physical nature, an intellectual, emotional 
and will nature. By his physical nature he can act on 
his environments; by his intellectual nature he can know 
that environment and the consequence of his acts on 
himself and environment; by his emotions he is inclined 
or incited to this or that act or line of conduct; by his 
judgment coupled with self interest and a sense of justice 
he chooses one among many possible lines of conduct; 
by his will operative on and through his physical nature 
the thing is done; and in the nature of things he takes 
the consequence of it all. 

In one view all this is automatic, and the God is re- 
sponsible for the whole outfit. The God determines the 



1 1 TSE MEN RE VIE I ! ED. 99 

character of the race; the race, the character of the indi- 
vidual to all its make-up, intellectually, emotionally, 
will and physical. And when it comes to any case the 
physical act hinges on the will; the will on the judg- 
ment and the emotion; the emotion and judgment on the 
intellectual range of concept at the time; this on the 
intellect: the whole outfit hinges on the man's nature ; the 
man's nature on his ancestry; the ancestry on the begin- 
ning of the race; and the beginning of the race on God. 
And thus the "iron chain of destiny" is made out, and it 
reaches from God to the act. This may be said to be 
the theoretic view, or what reason tells us about the 
matter, and those who place such great store by the 
"God like reason of man" will refuse utterly to take any 
other view. 

But there is another view — the practical view. And 
in this view consciousness, one of the incapacities, con- 
tradict the 4t God-like reason," just as the senses, another 
incapacity, contradicts the " God-like reason" of Ideal- 
ist- as lo the external physical world. And just as all 
men treat the external physical world as a realty in prac- 
tice, so all men treat the will and the power of choosing 
between courses of conduct as a realty in the make-up 
of the individual. 

The Idealist walk- round a mud puddle, notwithstand- 
ing his "God-like reason" tells him there is nothing of 
the kind outside his head. Society places before its 
members the jail house and gallows, reiving on this som- 
ber out-look to affect the will and conduct of the vicious 



100 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

and murderous. Religion places before the sinner hell, 
the devil, tail and horns, lampblack, red-hot poker and 
all, reiving on that glowing intellectual view to turn the 
wicked from the evil of their ways. Ethia places in full 
view of her highest type the deteriorated nature that an 
evil life will give the individual, and she points out the 
great injustice and ingratitude to herself and her other 
children of such a life: and she relies solely on this to 
determine the will of all those who have arrived at the 
capability of being thus influenced. But all this would be 
nonsense and the waste of much breath and printer's ink; 
it would be all vanity and vexation of spirit, and, withal, 
a very great injustice, if man is automatic and incapable 
of breaking the "iron chain of destiny" for any consid- 
eration whatsoever. Where is the use of everlastingly 
bothering a man with a view of jails, hells and damna- 
tion, if it has no effect toward keeping him out of such 
disreputable rendezvous? Better tell him eat, drink and 
be merry, for you were predestined from all eternity to 
certain line of conduct and consequences, not only pre- 
destined to good and evil conduct, but also to good and 
bad philosophy; take no thought of to-morrow, for you 
can do nothing. Why embitter the man's life with a 
taste of his doom aforetime, if he has no power to cast 
the cup from him? Let him march right on in as an ox 
to the slaughter. 

Before a man wills, he is conscious of considering and 
choosing. Before he acts, and while acting, he is con- 
scious of willing to so act. Well, that is all we want to 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 101 

know about it; we are content with what the incapacity 
says about the matter, for consciousness is about as close 
as we can get to it. We are by consciousness in this as 
we are by the senses in what they say about the external 
world; we have no disposition to go behind the return- 
ing board to consult the "God-like reason" about the 
matter. We would believe the consciousness and the 
senses any day in the week before reason, be it never so 
God-like. We can ideate just anything, true and false, 
but in normal conditions we can't see a house that is not, 
nor be conscious of willing and choosing if we are uot 
choosing and willing;. 

We conclude that man acts on his own responsibility; 
and that the noumenon of the act is in the individual 
acting. Our position has been that spirit runs through- 
out nature, and that this spirit is the controlling side 
throughout nature. It is the controlling side in man, 
in the animal, in the rock; the controlling side every- 
where, and in all individuality. And it controls after 
the same fashion everywhere. In man, knowledge ante- 
cedes will and will antecedes act. No part of nature is 
an exception to this rule. Everything under the sun 
and in it has the nescience of its range of act. Its 
knowledge is co-extensive with its range of act; not, of 
course, in all miuutia, but so far as it influences its con- 
duct. The individual everywhere acts out its nature 
toward its environment. And the environment could 
have no influence if the individual acting knew nothing 
about it; anything thai man knows nothing about has 



102 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

no influence on his conduct. Of course we don't say 
nescience, in lower existence, is what knowledge is in 
man and the animal, for they have not a nerve system. 
Take from man what he knows by his brain and nerve 
system, and he knows as much as a rock; that is, he 
knows enough to fall to the earth if unsupported, and to 
revolve round the axis and round the sun. So every- 
thing else on the planet, and the planet itself, knows the 
things toward which they act in the respects in which 
they act toward them. The nescience and will is co- 
extensive with the range of act. 

We judge other men to have the intelligence and will 
of their acts by what they do; for no man ever saw 
intelligence or will, nor are we conscious of other men's 
intelligence and will. We suppose the animal to have 
the intelligence and will of his acts by what they do. 
What reason under the sun is there for lopping the 
thing off at that point? The man on an high pedestal 
says only man has spirit and intelligence. Shall we 
perpetrate a like absurdity toward lower existence? If 
we judge of them as we do other men and the animal, 
that is, by act, then they have the intelligence and will 
of what they do; and there is no reason for judging by 
any other standard. 

WCll, if everything has the intelligence and will of 
its own acts, and those things are vested in its own 
spirit nature, necessarily the noumenon of act is in the 
thing acting. 

Everything: controls itself and is not controlled bv 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 103 

something else, except as it is an object of knowledge 
toward which movement is made. Of course, it' a man 
marries a woman, the woman, is in a way, to blame in 
the matter; for if she were not, or not what she is, the 
man would neither love nor marry her. And she might 
be what she is, yet if he knew her not he would 
not love or marry her. Yet we would most likely say 
the uoumenou of act is in the man acting and not in the 
woman. At the same time the nonmenon of the 
woman's acts is in the woman and not in the man. They 
act toward each other because they know each other, 
and will to so act. But assuredly the nonmenon of act 
is in each for themselves, and not in the object tow r ard 
which they act. The woman has precisely the " attrac- 
tion " for the man that the sun has for the earth, and 
that the earth has for a falling rock or running water. 
Everything acts toward another because it chooses to 
do so under all the circumstances, and not because that 
other makes it; everything acts voluntarily and not 
on compulsion of another individuality, except where 
there i- actual contact of one individuality in motion on 
another not having the same motion. 

Hence, we maintain that when two molecules unite, 
each acts for itself and the other don't make it, nor does 
affinity make them; for what you call affinity is spirit, 
and in each molecule for itself, as a permanent institu- 
tion there SO long as the molecule exists. When rain falls 
to the earth and water Line- on to the ocean, they act for 
themselves; the balance of the earth don't make them 






104 ETHfANISM: OR THE 



act, except as an object toward which they act; their act 
is a voluntary matter toward the balance of the earth as 
an object, just as we act toward an apple that we want 
to pluck from the tree. The earth revolves round its 
axis because it chooses to do so; it revolves around the 
sun for the same reason ; the sun don't make the earth 
do anything and never has, except as an object toward 
which the earth acts voluntarily, that is, of its own 
knowledge and free will. 

To this it will be objected that what is now the solar 
system was once a vast sun mass extending out as far 
as the orbit of Neptune, and that this sun mass revolved 
about its center throwing off planets; and that therefore 
the present motion of the planet is a compromise be- 
tween this imparted movement and the attraction of the 
sun. Imparted movement by what? 

This sun mass was revolving round its axis. Every 
part of it was responsible for its part of the movement 
for the sun mass was of course made up of its parts, 
and without these parts there was no sun mass to be or 
to do. Every part of the earth is responsible for what 
th<- earth does as a whole, for without the parts there 
would be no earth to do anything. Then we fail to see 
how or wherein any part of this sun mass imparted any 
movement to any other part when that other part already 
had the identical movement in an inate way, or as a 
part of the mass. We fail to see how T the part that is 
now the sun imparted or in any way affected the move- 
ments of the parts that became the planets. We think 



WISE MEN REVIEWED, 105 

it exerted no such influence when the planets were a 
part of the mass, and we think it exerts no such influ- 
ence now. The planet in the mass acted of an impulse 
within itself, and it does so now. The planets now are 
doino- nothing they were not doing in the sun mass; 
and what they now do are doing for the same rea- 
son they did it in the mass, that is, from an inate or 
noumenal nature. If the whole sun mass was acting 
of a noumenal nature then, every part was and the 
planets now are. 

To make this more palpable, suppose we resort to an 
absurd expedient, as absurdity perhaps is in our particu- 
lar line. But it must be remembered that this sun mass 
i- moving about its axis, and that every part is acting its 
own part in the movement, but no question is at present 
asked why the sun mass is moving; for the reason of this 
original movement applies to the whole mass, sun and 
all, and not to the planets peculiarly. 

Standing on the back of a flying turtle, we go up near 
the outer rim of this revolving mass and, thrusting 
through a huge knife or scalpel, we hold in such position 
a- that after one revolution of the sun mass we have a 
ring separated, which is Neptune. If our knife has had 
no frictional effect, this ring will continue doing what 
it was doing before and for the same reason. If it was 
acting for itself before, it is acting for itself now. There 
has been nothing imparted to it by this separation, 
nothing of mass, nothing of act. It continues revolving 
for the same reason that the balance of the mass is 



106 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

revolving and for the same reason that the sun is now 
revolving. Indeed, the planets are now revolving round 
the sun for the same reason that the sun is revolving 
round its axis. If you can give a reason for the sun's 
motion, we can give it back to you as an explanation of 
planetary motion. This Neptune ring that we have 
separated, what is it doing? As we have said, it is 
doing just what it did before separation. It is revolving 
round its own axis; it is revolving round the parts that 
after became the other planets; and it is revolving round 
the part that is now the sun. Has Neptune, from the 
very beginning ot the sun mass up to this good hour, ever 
done more or less. Suppose the ring rolls itself up into 
a ball and keeps on doing what the ring did, we would 
then have the Neptune of to-day revolving round its 
axis, the other planets, and the sun. Anything imparted? 
If so, it was imparted to the original sun mass by some- 
thing antecedent, and not to the planet by the balance of 
the sun mass. 

Now turtle and I might continue dropping down and 
shaving off planets till w r e got to the part that is now 
the sun. We would then have the planetary system as 
it is. The sun would continue revolving round its axis 
as before; the planets would do as they did before, and 
as they do now. Nothing added to the planet's motion 
nor taken from the sun's motion. Nothing imparted. 

If there was not danger that the sun would resent the 
affront by melting the hinges of our flying machine, we 
would continue lathering and shaving until we had the 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 107 

sun itself cut up into planet rings and until we had noth- 
ing left of the sun mass but a small point the size of a 
pin head. Yet no part is doing more than it did before 
and there is still no. evidence of imparted movement. 
Indeed, when we have whittled the sun mass down to 
this fine point whence should come the imparted move- 
ment? It would have to come from the pin head, or 
something anteeedant to the sun mass. 

There is no doubt the noumenon of existence in the 
ages has taken a certain course, and in that course the 
sun mass may have anteceded the solar system as we now 
have it. But is that any proof that the noumenon of 
movement is not in the thing acting. It is the great 
noumenon of existence, whatever it may be, acting out 
its nature in all time and in all space. And because you 
think you know what it did yesterday is scarcely proof 
it acts on compulsion to-day. Because you can conceive 
of planets in a sun mass is no proof those planets are 
not now acting of a noumenon of movement within them- 
selves. The noumenon of existence acts for itself wher- 
ever it is and in whatever time. 

But suppose it still insisted that the noumenon of 
movemement is not in every part of the mass for itself, 
but that it is a central power. If it is a central power 
then it must be in the center. Then turtle and I will 
go to that center, and instead of a knife we will thrust 
through a huge spindle and fix a crank, or perhaps I 
will do for the crank, though possibly not a very relig- 
ious one. And we turn a mighty turn. Soon the plan- 






108 ETHIANISM: OR THE 



ets begin to go and keep up their going until we have 
nothing but the sun left. But suppose by this time we 
got wanned up to our business and turned the faster ; 
then the sun itself would go off as planets and we 
would have nothing in hand but the spindle and crank. 
Seeing the mighty things we were doing, we would do 
what no ordinary man under ordinary circumstances 
ever does when turning a crank, we would become 
enthusiastic, and turn such a turn as was never turned 
before, until crank and spindle went, leaving us bowing 
vociferously to the worlds we had thus created. 

Well, that is science with a central control, and not 
Turtle & Co. with the noumenon of movement in the 
thing acting. The great difference between the sun 
mass and a grindstone is that the sun mass has no crank 
or central control, and needs none ; for the noumenon 
of movement is in every part. The grindstone wont 
go without a crank, hence it is concluded nothing else 
will. But can you learn anything about the sun mass 
from a grindstone? 

You must place the noumenon of movement some- 
where ; if not in every part of the sun mass for itself, 
then in the center; and when you go to look for the 
center you find it to be a very small point indeed and 
not there at all. Yet for science this point continues 
whirling the sun and planets about itself, and they never 
will be able to get away from this pin-head or out of 
the whirl, so long as the world stands. 

Still the question remains whence this sun mass and 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 109 

whence its motion as a sun mass. We may look beyond 
the sun mass through the telescope or through the 
microscope. But in either case we ultimately arrive at 
the great unknown or noumenon of existence beyond 
our capacities. The telescope used by science points to 
the fact that this sun mass was thrown off by a still 
larger mass, that by one larger and so on till we have a 
mass filling all space revolving about its axis. Well, 
this huge concern must be moving of a noumenon of 
movement in itself; if not within itself then we would 
not know which way to look for the requisite extraneous 
influence unless some man turned it with a crank, with 
himself as the crank. 

This infinite sun mass would be the noumenon of 
existence, self-created and self-acting, and of which all 
things, whatsoever, are individualizations and manifesta- 
tions if within the reach of our capacities. This infinite 
sun mass sent us the universe, the balance went else- 
where, and we've not heard of it since. 

If we don't like this view look through the microscope 
and "indirect evidence of a very complicated kind," and 
we trace the sun mass back to a free, independent atomic 
condition in infinite Ether. And this is the noumenon of 
existence, which we may reasonably suppose acts of a 
noumenon of movement in itself. Science says the 
noumenon of movement here is affinity, which is liable 
to transmute at any time into something else; we say it 
is spirit, and that it is a permanent institution in the 
atom so hmg as the atom exists. Of course, if two atoms 



110 XTHIANISM: OB THE 

unite, or two anythings else in the entire concatenation 
unite, there is a union of both the physical and spirit 
sides, and the result is an individual diffeiing both in 
body and spirit from the elements combining. In this 
sense the active side of things, whether force or spirit, 
transmutes, but in no other sense. If the active side 
kk transmutes" out of all individuality it goes to heaven 
as a conscious personality, or it goes to the general fund 
from which positiom it " transmutes" into other in- 
dividuality, or perhaps a new creation. But wherever it 
be it is a permanent institution, and a realty. No matter 
how we follow the line of antecedents back we ultimately 
arrive at the great noumenon of existence or profound 
mystery ; and we can but suppose this acts of a noumenon 
of movement within itself. If it is the Atom, it so acts; 
if it is Matter, it so acts; if pantheistic God, he so acts; 
if Ethia, she so acts. 

But it may still be maintained perhaps, by great learn- 
ing, much mathematics, and indomitable law, that the 
atoms of our sun mass came up out of the independent 
condition in Ether, in a state of very violent heat 
motion; that subsidence caused contraction ; contraction 
caused rotation; rotation caused the planets to fly; and 
the sun refuses to let them fly away from the sun. But 
in all this what do you but follow nature or noumenon in 
its successive acts? And in all it is this nature or 
noumenon as individualized and manifested, acting out 
its nature in a given set of circumstances. 

Now . we don't pretend to say there was ever such sun 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 1 1 1 

mass. We are inclined to think that nature could have 
as easily aggregated about the sun center and planet 
centers; and set up business in that way. But if there 
ever was such sun mass it does not explain the planet's 
motion ; it is but an antecedent, and it had an antecedent 
on baek to the noumenon of existence or God, which to 
the best of our knowledge had no antecedent either in 
time or space. When a thing- does a thing you are com- 
pelled ultimately to rest in the fact that it does it because 
it chooses to do so under the circumstances; it acts out its 
nature toward its environment. The individual, whether 
man or planet, is the noumenon manifested in certain 
Ether in certain qualities, and it acts for itself. It does 
not need extraneous control, and it is something of an 
insult to insinuate such ungodly thing. 

Indeed it is poorly worth while to start from where 
we now are, and go back from one movement to another, 
thinking to reach a beginning, therefore an ultimate 
explanation, for beginning is precisely the term that has 
no meaning in the absolute. Yet it is a habit with some 
men, when they succeed in going back from one thing 
to another antecedent, or from one movement to another 
that preceded, to rest with a supreme content and dog- 
matize with a superb dogmatism as if resting on bottom 
facts. And they rest there until some other man carries 
the concept beyond, then that other man is luminous in 
like manner. It is a peculiar iact that however much 
we add to the known, the unknown is in nowise dimin- 
ished. If we go back from present planetary movement 






112 ETHIANISM: OR THE 



to the antecedent sun mass movement, we find that we 
have great need to go further, and we find that move- 
ment no explanation of present movement. It is but 
an antecedent movement of the great noumenon of exis- 
tence, which noumenon, wherever it may be, and what- 
ever it may be, acts for itself, and not on compulsion. 

It is said every individuality, whether large or small, 
will move in a straight line unless deflected by some- 
thing else. Well, yes, a thing will always move in a 
straight line unless it moves in some other line. A 
cannon ball will always move in a straight line unless it 
moves in a curve. A planet will move in a straight 
line unless it chooses to move in an ellipse. Everything 
will move in a straight line unless it moves in reference 
to its surroundings, unless it acts out its nature toward 
its environment. A man would perhaps move in a 
straight line if he was not "deflected" to the left by a 
ripe apple hanging over in his neighbor's orchard. 

All parts of a system act in reference to the balance 
of the system, otherwise there would be no system; the 
individual acts in reference to the smaller system; the 
smaller system acts in reference to the larger. The 
individual acts in reference to the earth, of which it is a 
part; the earth in reference to the universe, of which it 
is a part. Further than that the deponent saith not. 
A cannon ball acts in reference to the earth, of which it 
is a part; the earth in reference to the sun and the bal- 
ance of the universe ; the man acts in reference to the 
apple. And thus many curved lines occur, but the 



1 1 r ISE MEN RE 1 7 /•; I \ ED. 1 1 3 

thing cannot be helped; we would keep everything 
.straight if we could. If the man didn't act in reference 
to his environment possibly he would he called a fool, 
and thereby some human soul would be placed in the 
Irishman's "jopardy." If a planet struck out on a 
straight line, neither looking to the right or left, nor 
changing its line for any consideration whatever, then 
we might look out for squalls, and perhaps we would 
give expression to a lew ourselves. To go straight in. 
reference to a system it is often necessary to go in 
curves, and sometimes it is best to zig-zag a few. The 
term straight, like all our other terms, lias reference and 
application to the system we know; a line is straight or 
curved in reference to the things of the system ; it is 
relative change of position as in the different points of 
its motion. The bore of a cannon we may suppose abso- 
lutely straight, that is, it changes not its direction in 
any reference to the system. A cannon ball forced out 
necessarily takes the same line of motion while in the 
bore. But the moment it quits the cannon it is at lib- 
erty to act in reference to the earth, which it does, result- 
ing in a curve. The curved line is the result of two 
dispositions in the ball, one to go forward in its present 
motion, the other the disposition to go to the center of 
the earth. If there ever was a sun mass the planet's 
present motion is the result of its motion in that mass, 
and its disposition to go to the center of that mass. If 7 
however, the planet owes its motion to being fired off 

8 



114 ETHIANISM: OR 1HE 

by the sun mass as a ball out of a cannon, and the Ether 
has any solidity it would ultimately bring the planet to 
a standstill. But it is not our opinion that Ether or 
Ethia ever interferes with the conduct of her children 
in that way, for the non-manifested Ethia has none of 
the qualities of the manifested Ethia. The planets are 
acting out their own sweet will under a given environ- 
ment, and so long as circumstances do not change they 
will continue doing as they now do. If you ask the 
planet why it thus demeans itself, the planet or the nou- 
inenon thereof, says bah ! go to, that's my business. 
If you asked yourself why yon do in certain ways at 
any time, you could go back to certain antecedents in 
your intellectual and emotional nature, but you would 
never reach the ultimate why; you must needs finally 
rest in the fact that you do so because you choose to do 
so under all the circumstances that you take into con- 
sideration. You act voluntarily for the most part and 
not on compulsion of other individuality. 

The universe is a live thing and not dead as some 
seem to think. If it is dead on the physical side it is 
correspondingly live on the spirit side. It does not 
therefore need to be controlled mechanically. True the 
noumenon pursues a definite invariable course in the 
concatenation, and necessarily does one thing after an 
other, and the concatenation and what is done in it is 
the result. If you choose to call this mechanical, trans- 
mutation and all that we know of law that will hang 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 16 

you for it. but like the Texan lawyer we can't agree 
with the court in the opinion. 

As we are arguing that the noumenon of movement is 
iu the thing acting, and that every individual controls 
itself and is not controlled by something extraneous, it 
is perhaps necessary to say something about the laws of 
nature, for evidently it these control the individual the 
individual does not control himself. \t' we were to argue 
against the control by law we would argue without an 
adversary j for only young students who are misled by 
the language of science, and amateurs in science, believe 
that man's formal statements of nature's way of doing 
has anything to do with nature's conduct. Even soci- 
ety's laws do not restrain the individual; the criminal is 
in no terror of the code, unless some man throws it at 
his head. But it is the punishment which the code 
hitches on to the tail end of a certain line of conduct 
that the criminal stands in holy horror of. And even 
that would do the man no harm or good, if never actu- 
ally inflicted. This stipulated punishment is a standing 
menace and the vicious rest in the benign shadow 
thereof. 

Hut the laws of nature don't even have that effect on 
nature. Man in these formal statements of nature's way 
of doing don't say to nature if you do in certain ways 
we will whollop you in the calaboose. He simply, in 
concentrated form, tells other men what nature does. He 
don't even throw it up to nature that she does so and so 
in certain wav, and even if he did we don't reckon 



116 ETHIAXI&M: OR THE 

nature would care; it would put no change on her, she 
would continue on as before. Sometimes men make 
mistakes in their formal statements or laws, but we 
never knew nature to change her style so as to conform; 
the man finds it necessary to conform his law to nature's 
conduct. Indeed nature has the inside track on man 
and his laws; the tail never wags the dog. Kepler is 
sometimes styled the "legislator of the skies" as if for- 
sooth he framed a set of laws by which the planets are 
governed. He found out something about them, framed 
a brief statement, or laws, and straightway his admirers 
turn about, make a shilalah of these laws and cudgel the 
planets into doing what they had been doing from 
all eternity of their own free will and accord. The laws 
of nature are unconstitutional, they are always enacted 
after the crime is committed. We don't just see, any 
way, who is going to enforce them if nature has religious 
scruples about obeying. The big dog trots along 
regardless of the small dog barking at his heels, but that 
is not the small dog's opinion. Man does all the bark- 
ing, but nature is in no wise disturbed, she jogs on ; the 
man in the moon just "sots" there. 

It is sometimes thought that the laws of nature knock 
the personal God out of controlling existence by his divine 
energy, but one sees not why. The law is a statement of 
the how of nature's conduct, and not the why. The why 
may be divine energy, spirit, force, destiny, fate oranything 
else so far as the law cares. The why is a different discus- 



I J r ISE MEN R E 1 7 E 1 1 r ED. 1 1 7 

sion, and its solution must be arrived at from some other 
direction. 

The next refinement after law is mathematical neces- 
sity. It is mathematically necessary that nature should 
do as she does do; and conic sections, Calculus & Co. 
governs her. Verily, a man in a fog feels that the world 
is full of fog. In an atmosphere of mathematics one 
feels that they permeate all things and control them. 
But what is mathematics but a definite application of 
man's concepts to a state of facts antecedent to all math- 
ematics and their application ? Can you conceive of 
mathematics having anything to do with nature's con- 
duet? Nature again has the inside track; mathematics 
is based on nature as seen through man's intellect, and 
nature is not based on mathematics, nor John Mattox 
for that matter. If mathematics fails to conform to 
nature there is a re-calculation, or, perchance, a change 
of base, but nature never reconsiders her conduct for 
the accommodation of the mathematician. Mathematics 
will do as a how, but, as a why of nature and her con- 
duct, it tails to reach the persimmon. 

We conclude that when Ethia creates the race she 
turns it loose to browse as it chooses in the great pasture 
field of nature. The race creates the individual and 
turns him loose in like manner. The individual acts on 
his own responsibility and is not controlled by other indi- 
viduality, except where there is actual contact in the 
mechanical way. This is not only true of man, it is 
true of the animal, and true throughout nature. That 



IIS ETHIANISM: OR THE 

man concludes otherwise is not because of anything he 
sees in lower nature, but because he has placed himself 
on an high pedestal quite apart from the balance of 
nature. If you talked to an ignorant man about his 
horse having intelligence and a spirit, he would be 
aghast. Yet the horse gives every indication of intelli- 
gence and spirit that the man does. The wise men by 
a large majority, occupy a like untennable posi- 
tion toward the lower orders of existence. When 
men become wise enough to come down off an 
high pedestal, recognizing that man is only the high- 
est type of earth existence, and that, whatever nature 
he has, the lower existence has, only in less perfec- 
tion, then it strikes us he will see things in a 
clearer and truer light and in their proper relations. 
This is not dragging man down, but is elevating lower 
nature to its true position. And man is not damaged in 
the operation, since he is only concerned about his abso- 
lute standing, which his relative standing in nowise 
affects. 

But how about the control of the concatenation by 
divine energy or providential government? We have 
said that whatever God created the concatenation controls 
it by his divine energy, and this may apparently contra- 
dict the position that the individual controls himself. 
Well, the individual is made up of the spirit and physi- 
cal side; the spirit side controls the physical side, and 
this spirit is the divine energy of the God as manifested 
in the concatenation and in the conduct of the individ- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED, 119 

ual. The divine energy of the non-manifested God was 
originally manifested in the creation; but in the control 
of the individual her divine energy is vested and seen in 
the spirit. The individual acts on his own responsibil- 
ity, controlled by the divine energy of his spirit. 

But the eoncatination created by the divine energy of 
the non-manifested Ethia, and in running order by rea- 
son of the divine energy in the spirit side, what more 
does Ethia. or does she ever after, as Goethe ridicules 
the matter, "sit aloft, seeing the world go?" Well, we 
can take two positions, that of agnosticism, or that of 
dogmatism: and, as we have always had a holy horror 
of knowing too much, especially of knowing a thing we 
don't know before we have proof enough to know it, 
we take the position of agnosticism as to this as w T ell as 
toward a great many questions. But we understand 
agnosticism to give us this privilege, that of speculating 
as to how the thing might be, and of inclining to this 
or that opinion so long and to the extent that we do not 
dogmatize as to how the thing really is until we have 
sufficient proof. We may theorize that the non-mani- 
fested Ethia of Ether might and could influence the man- 
ifested Ethia in earth space in its conduct, but that is a 
different thing from dogmatizing that she does so influ- 
ence it. Man can theorize or ideate just anything, good, 
bad and indifferent, and, if we take his past achieve- 
ments in this line as proof of what he can do, he can 
believe just anything, no matter how absurd. But man 
can't see a thing or be conscious of a thing unless it 



12(1 ETFJIANISM: OR THE 

really is. And in normal conditions he can't believe he 
sees or is conscious of a thing unless he does see or is 
conscious. Therefore, after we speculate as to what Ethia 
might do in the way of influencing the concatenation, it 
still remains to be decided what she does do. And this 
is decided by consciousness, the senses, and evidence, or 
by the scientific method. The theory remains only a 
theory until it is made a living fact in such proof. The 
proof of the pudding is always in the eating, as the reader 
may have heard before. 

It is scarcely denied that the concatenation originally 
owes its existence and activity to the non-manifested 
Ethia in Ether; for in the "beginning" it all came 
from her there. And it will hardly be denied that any 
increased activity after the mineral earth, which is seen 
in vegetation, the animal and man, is owing to the im- 
proved spirit nature they have; and whence that im- 
proved spirit, and consequent exhalted activity, unless 
from the God in Ether. Well, if the God has had so 
much to do with the concatenation so far, why conclude 
he has quit. He has interfered with the concatenation 
and its conduct in the past, why not now? But in the 
past lie has interfered with the concatenation in certain 
way, and that way is by changing and improving the 
spirit side of the individual. She thus creates races. 
"Well, if she was going to influence the individual's con- 
duct now she would do it in the same way, that is, by 
effecting slight change or improvement in the individ- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 121 

ual's spirit nature, and this would result in correspond- 
ing change in physical conduct, thought, etc. 

Could Ethia do this? The parson tells us nothing is 
impossible to God, but he often fails to give us a mental 
presentation of how the God docs a thing. And Jones 
is hut little better in this case. Yet Ethia, the infin- 
ite absolute, tills all space and permeates all existence, 
man's spirit and all other spirits. She certainly there- 
fore is in position to change the individual's spirit nature, 
and through that his conduct. She is in much better 
position in this respect than is the parson's personal 
God sitting out there on a throne in a local heaven sur- 
rounded by battlements of which St. Peter has the keys. 
Indeed if the parson's God affected the man's spirit it 
must needs be something after the manner of a telegraph 
operator. But after all none of us can form any mental 
presentation of how the God affects the man's spirit, 
neither can we form a mental presentation of how a race 
i- created, nor of how the "without form and void 
earth" was created in the "beginning." But we have 
the concatenation; we believe there is some great noume- 
non or God, ami even without a mental presentation of 
the how, we have faith in some sort of connection 
between the creator and the created. All men have 
this faith, the Atomist and Materialists among the rest. 
And even the Atheist, with his element Gods, estab- 
lishes a relation between the elements and the individual, 
but he hasn't the least idea of how the elements become 
the individual. 



122 ETHIANISM: OR 2 HE 

Well, that is theory, or what Ethia, the infinite abso 
lute God, non-manifested, might do to influence the 
individual. What she does do is not a matter of spec- 
ulation, philosophy, or even religion, but of proof, by 
scientific methods, of actual experience in the senses and 
consciousness. Whether there is anything in Spiritu- 
alism, Mind cure, Faith cure, or in any or all the isms, 
is not a matter of speculation, or blind unreasoning faith, 
but of proof by scientific methods, that is, of patient, 
untiring, cool, unprejudiced, discriminating, application 
of consciousness and the senses to the question. Whether 
the God of Ether influences the concatenation or the 
individual in answer to the desire, will, or prayer — all of 
which belongs to the same category — of the individual, 
is a question of proof by scientific methods. Whether 
the God ever has, for this reason, or any reason, influ- 
enced the concatenation or the individual, is a question 
for learned historical research by scientific methods. 

Yet it is not the correct thing to ridicule any or all 
these isms, or lines of inquiry, out of existence. And 
what to us may seem an unreasonable faith and enthusi- 
asm in any particular line of inquiry is a good thing 
after all, for only such faith and enthusiasm spur the 
individual into action. Let them by all means have the 
enthusiasm, while the public practices the judicial calm, 
until the proof is all in. The public in these cases is 
the intellectual lobes, which, in a well balanced head, 
should run well back as an indication that the intellect 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 123 

dominates. The stronger the emotions the better, it' 
the intellect dominates. 

It is said of Napoleon in his eastern experience, that 
he was surrounded by the incoming tide of a sea, and 
was in great danger of showing how Pharaoh and his 
hosts before him did it. But Bonaparte was equal to the 
occasion while Pharaoh was not. He formed his escort 
about him, radiation fashion, crupper to crupper, and 
commanded, forward, march. Soon many struck swim- 
ming water and returned ; finally all but one had returned, 
and they followed that one safely out of the woods, 
Napoleon bringing up the rear. Xml this is said to be 
the only instance in the history of war where the rear 
of a retreating army was the safest position to occupy. 
In like manner human inquiry should be encouraged to 
radiate out in all possible directions, while we, like 
Napoleon, sit calmly on our horses, or hobbies, as the 
case may be, coolly waiting for some man to find the 
only road leading out of the sea of uncertainties. We 
may then safely follow him even unto salvation. But 
it would have been rather foolish in Napoleon, and 
a little fatiguing to have followed every one of his 
escort at the same time, while they were radiating. 
Evidently the correct thing was to wait till some one 
convinced him by actual experience that he was on the 
high-way that led to high land. 

A- to how much supernaturalism there is in a country 
or with a people, that depends very greatly on how much 
there is there. Hence, there is much less 



124 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

supematuralism in this age than in past ages, and much 
less in civilized countries than in others. Even the 
Jew of this age and country talks, perhaps, much less of 
what God does, and more of what the individual does, 
than was the fashion with the earlier Jew, and the Jew 
in hi.- own country to-day. And the parson, in a rural 
district, gives God and the devil credit for doing very 
many things which, the better informed, learned theo- 
logian of a refined city pulpit of a liberal church, would 
say is man's work, or nature's doing. As a general rule 
an occurrence continues on the supernatural list so long 
as we cannot understand it on any known principle, but 
the moment we do understand it, it becomes natural, 
even if it is the act of God. 



WISE MEN HE VI FAY EI). 125 



CHAPTER VI. 

WHAT SHALL WE DO TO BE SAVED? 

The Materialistic and Pantheistic Plan; The Religious Plan; 
The Ethian Plan of Salvation. Boodhs. One Life at a 
Time. Will Man have another Life? Heaven and Hell. 
How they come about, and the conditions there. 

In answer to the above query, Materialism gives us 
this prescription: Eat plenty of good roast beef, fruits 
and brown bread, and attend to the laws of health ; for 
all is matter, and you only live till you die. 

Pantheism says, wherefore should you fellows wrestle 
with that question ? When you die your spirit is 
absorbed into the God whence it emanated. If you 
have been good you are absorbed ; if bad you are 
absorbed, and your condition there is the same no matter 
what manner of life you may have lived here. There- 
fore when you fellows talk about salvation, if you mean 
anything-, you mean salvation in this life and salvation 
to your descendants. You can salvate your present life, 
or so long as you are an enamation ; you can perfect 
yourself physically, mentally, emotionally ; you can live 
a temperate, virtuous, just life, which, on the whole, is 
the happy life. And as your children's nature at concep- 
tion depends altogether on the nature of the parents at 
the time, while you are salvating yourself in the genera- 



126 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

tion life, you are salvating your children, and, through 
those children, future generations, even on down to the 
"final" day, or until your particular line of race life is 
extinct. Indeed, every man lives two lives; the gener- 
ation life and the race life, and every man is as old as 
his race in the race way, though he only lives a few 
years in the generation way. Therefore, Methusaleh, 
although as a generation man he lengthened out amaz- 
ingly, as a race man he did nothing extraordinary, since 
when he he died every Jew then living was as old as he 
in the race way; and the Jew of to-day can boast of 
being just so many centuries older than Mathusaleh ever 
was in his best davs. The man begins the generation 
life with the nature the race life has given him, and 
what that nature is depends, originally, on the character 
the God gave the race in its creation, and, subsequently, 
on what all those antecedent generations that make up 
the race life has [made [it to date. The generation 
man takes up the thread of the narrative and carries it 
on to his death. But in the meantime he has begotten 
children, and he passes on to them not only the nature 
he has at conception, but such slight changes as he has 
made in the race nature up to the time of the conception 
of those children. He has had his influence on the 
race nature, and that influence is felt, not only by his 
children, but by all subsequent generations, even unto 
the em], just as he has been affected by the lives of all 
the ages that have preceded him in his particular line of 
race life. The race life is a chain of generation lives, 



WISE Mi:\ REVIEWED. 127 

each link of which is connected with the others fore and 
aft. But as fast as a link is lived it drops off into 
eternity. The next link is his children, and whether 
they are bright or rusty, depends on the parents; those 
parents on their parents, and so on to the beginning. 
And a like dependence goes the other way, even down 
to the end of the race. 

Of course, when an old bachelor dies he dies all over ; 
his spirit goes to eternity and his body six feet under 
ground, and that is the last you hear of him in the con- 
catenation, unless he has said something or done some- 
thing to influence the race evolution after him. He 
signs a quit claim to the race life and invests all his 
available means in "furrin" parts. 

Pantheism therefore tells us that when we fellows 
talk about salvation we mean salvation to the generation 
life and the race life : as to salvation in any other life 
it is nonsense ; for there we are absorbed into God. 

It will be observed that both Materialism andPanthe- 
ism limit salvation to this life, either to the generation 
life, or to both the generation and race life. Material- 
ists say salvate the physical nature, for what you call 
spirit isa property of matter. Pantheists say salvate the 
spirit, for it i> an emanation from the spirit God. Sal- 
vation in another life is nonsense to both ; for after this 
life we arc absorbed into matter or into God. 

But there is another very large and most estimable class 
who make salvation almost exclusively a thing of the 
next life, in heaven. They place such great stress on 



128 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

salvation there that salvation here almost drops out of 
view. So much, attention is directed to the non-mani- 
fested God and the heaven life that they have little left 
for the manifested God and earth life, neither the gener- 
ation life nor the race life. True the spirit in this life 
is to be perfected in a way, but in relation to the non- 
manifested God and the heavenly life, rather than in its 
relation to the manifested God or the things of this 
low grounds of sorrow and sin. Indeed we are warned 
not to go off after the things of this world. Wife and 
children are to be turned adrift if they endanger salva- 
tion in the heavenly life. Indeed this life is a rathersmall 
potato, and harmonizing our nature, intellectual, emotional 
and our conduct with the environment we live in is no 
sort of preparation for or salvation in the life to come. 
We may live all our days out of whack with the 
things of this life but if the last hour of our life is 
invested in repentance we march right on in where all 
the good people go. Perhaps the great difference 
between this salvation and those others is that with those 
others the man must salvate himself, beginning with 
the salvation, and damnation for that matter, which the 
God and ancestors have given him. Beginning with 
the nature the God gave the race when he created it, 
the race must salvate itself, which it is able to do by 
reason of the progressive character the God stamped 
the race with in the beginning. But this other salva- 
tion depends rather on the God. Man has little to do; 
with those others he has it all to do. In the view of 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 129 

Materialism and Pantheism the man attains unto salva- 
tion by being first sorry for his sins, then renouncing 
them, then changing his habits or life, which per- 
sisted in long enough his nature is changed ; and then 

and not until then he is salvated, he is made whole, he 
is treed from his sins and the effects on his own nature 
of these sins. He forsakes his sins because they are 
sins; he regenerates his nature because he thinks it not 
what it ought to be, and he does all of this of his own 
efforts, but the God and his ancestry gave him the 
power to make effort and the base of success. With 
these to be born again requires a life-time effort. But 
with the other the man has a godly sorrow, whatever 
that may be, repents, asks forgiveness and the thing is 
done. He is born again in a twinkling, his sins are all 
wiped out and their effects on his nature are washed 
away ; he starts out in life on the new and, we may 
suppose, as a perfect man; for the effects of the fall 
have been removed by the merits of the savior, of which 
merits the man has availed himself in regulation form. 

But the query is, what shall we do to be saved, and 
it must be remembered that salvation is now made a 
thing of the next life. Religion tells us, tell us — well 
there are no snakes if we know what they do tell us. 
Or rather they tell us of so many ways that we find it 
impossible to determine which is THE way. Every creed 
is a way of salvation. Just how many creeds there are 
we do not know. But we know of several, and they all 

9 






130 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

differ as to the way of salvation, otherwise they would 
not he different creeds, but the same. There are many 
o reeds among orthodox churches, indeed as many as 
there are denominations. These differ not only from 
each other, but from the creeds of the liberal churches. 
The creed of Protestantism differs from that of Roman- 
ism. All this differs from the Greek church. And the 
Christian creed is not the creed of the Hebrew church. 
All these again are not the creed of Islam. Again the 
creed of Judaism in its original trunk and in all its 
ramifications is not the creed of Boodhism. 

Again the creeds of to-day's churches are not the 
creeds of the same churches two hundred or a thousand 
years ago. Besides all this, the ignorant country parson 
and the learned city theologian subscribe to the same 
creed, but they will preach you sermons not at all alike; 
the creed interprets the scriptures; the parson interprets 
the creed; and there is an all round variance, resulting 
of course not from any difference in the scriptures, but 
from a difference in the intellectual and emotional make- 
up of the churches and speakers that interpret. The 
country parson would perhaps tell you your salvation 
depended on your belief in a personal God on a throne, 
in a local heaven of golden streets, harp music and 
hallelujahs, and on your attendance on revivals where 
there is much shouting and they skip loud. The liberal 
theologian and the Jewish Rabbi would tell you noth- 
ing like that. They would perhaps tell you that God 
is infinite, absolute and incomprehensible, that it is your 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 131 

duty to reverence, love and obey him as the creator and 
preserver of all things, and that the best sort of repent- 
ance for sins is to forsake them, and that the very best 
evidence of your love for God is your love for your 
fellow-man. which yon show in sympathy and kindness, 
and in all good works. 

Now, we would like to do the fair thing in defining 
religion's answer to the query. kk What shall we do to be 
saved?" But it must be apparent that we rest under 
grave difficulties. If we told what the country parson 
said and indulged in any censure or ridicule, the learned 
theologian would say, "that's all right; that's not relig- 
ion." If we censured or ridiculed orthodox churches, 
liberal churches would say, "that's all right; that's not 
Christianity." If we censured or ridiculed Christianity, 
the Jewish Rabbi would say, "that's all right; that's not 
religion." If we censured and ridiculed Judaism, root 
and branch, Boodhism would say, "that's all right; that's 
not religion." Evidently, it would be a species of very 
great injustice to saddle on the churches of this age the 
errors of the churches of past ages, or the errors of 
Christianity, if such errors there be, on the Hebrew 
church, or the errors of Romanism on Protestantism, or 
the errors of one Protestant church on the other, or the 
errors of one individual on another. Nor would it be 
fair to censure or ridicule the Bible, as we have it in 
English, for any errors that may have come to it in the 
translation. Whether the Biblical writers properly 
expressed themselves in Hebrew or Greek, whether that 






132 ETHIANISM: OR THE 



Hebrew was properly translated into English, and whether 
the theologian properly interprets or expounds for us, is 
the business of theology, and not our business. Chris- 
tians tell us there is a Christianity, and all hands tell us 
there is a religion. Well, all any man asks is that they 
tell us what it is. They have told us, but, as we have 
seen, in very many ways. When you hear a man blam- 
ing theology for not preaching religion or Christianity, 
you may know he has a creed of his own, and what he 
blames theology for is not preaching that creed. Such a 
man is in magnificent shape for establishing a church of 
his own and installing himself pastor. But when he 
has done so he has but added one more to the long list 
of churches and creeds that already be. The only pos- 
sible chance, which is not at all a possible chance, is for 
all hands to come together and formulate a universal 
creed. This they cannot do, for if there was a possibil- 
ity of their coming together they would never have gone 
apart. On what basis would Romanism and Protestants 
agree? After just how much discussion would the Rabbi 
and the Theologian agree as to the merits of Christ as a 
savior? Such a council would evidently break up in a 
row. They all tell us to believe, but believe what? To 
believe in the God of the Bible; but which God, which 
concept, the personal or the absolute God? 

Perhaps we are told that if we are so hard to please 
and cannot fall in with the creeds now existent, to go to 
the Bible and get up one of our own. Which Bible? 
The Jewish Rabbi says, to the old testament; Chris- 



WISE MEJS REVIEWED. 133 

tianity says to both, but put in most of your time reading 
the new; for the new dispensation superseded the old. 
Well how are we to read? Are we to take the writers 
at what they say? Literalists say yes; others say no, 
read beneath the line. Well if we read literally much 
scriptures favors the idea that God is personal; he sits 
on a throne, he walks an 1 talks in the Garden ; he loves 
and gets angry, he sees everything we do, he sends his 
son to save us, and a great many things indicating not 
only personality but a personality very much like man's. 
But other scriptures favor the idea that God is absolute; 
for he is in all things and all things are in him. If 
there were not this difference in seripture there eould 
not be the difference in creeds; and we are no more 
capable of making out what the Bible means than were 
those creeds, and if we made it out to our own satisfac- 
tion we >vould only be adding another creed to the long 
list. 

But the other party says read beneath the line, don't 
take the scriptures literally. But if you read beneath 
the line what are you reading, the scriptures, or your 
own head? If you don't take the scriptures as literally 
meaning what they say, or what the language implies in 
a natural or every day construction, then anything more 
than that is a contribution from your own intellectual 
nature, a revelation of your own intellect, ami not of the 
intellects of the Biblical writer.-. And where do you 
get anything to contribute but from science, your own 
experience, and the intellectual evolution of the age? 



134 ETHrANISM: OR THE 

And if what you read beneath the lines has greater con- 
formity to truth than the lines themselves which is the 
better revelation, the revelation of science and the 
intellectual condition of the age as represented by your 
intellect, or the scriptures? In the very nature of things 
an interpreter contributes from his own nature to the 
thing interpreted, otherwise he would not be an inter- 
preter at all, but simply a reader. And what he con- 
tributes necessarily goes from his own intellect and does 
not come from the writer's intellect. The learned city 
theologian often contributes so much from his own intel- 
lect that one does not know whether to call his sermon 
philosophy or religion. The rural parson does not con- 
tribute much ; possibly the poor fellow hasn't it to con- 
tribute. The intellectual character of the age does not 
express itself with any great success through the rural 
parson; he lives not in his own age but way back in 
those ages when they blew down cities with horns, and 
when whales swallowed sailors, with perfect impunity to 
the sailor, whatever effect it may have had on the whale. 
The scriptures represent the intellectual character of 
the people in the ages when they were written, and the 
earlier writers no doubt had different and more crude 
notions about things than the later wTiters. In like 
manner the interpretation of scriptures represent the 
intellectual character of the people and age interpreting, 
and it is a well known fact that earlier interpretations 
and practices by ignorant people are repudiated by this 
age. Hence, the theology of the present asks to be 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 135 

excused from any responsibility for the follies of the 
past, and the learned theologian blushes tor the ignorant 
parson who is blissfully unconscious of his own shortcom- 
ings. Theology itself, when pushed to the wall on the 
teachings and practices of the earlier Jews, such as 
slavery and the treatment of woman, confesses that 
religion is an evolution. Yes, it is an evolution, and it 
exactly coincides with intellectual evolution. What 
does not appear wrong to one age, appears wrong to 
another. But what is absolutely wrong is wrong in all 
age.*, and no God would encourage it under any circum- 
stances. Men through ignorance and an evil nature 
may teach and practice wrong, but a God, never; he is 
neither ignorant nor vicious in any age. As our theol- 
ogy, representing the intellectual character of this age, 
repudiate the interpretations of past ages, so Christ rep- 
resenting his age repudiated much that had been taught 
before him. each repudiating what they considered bad 
and holding on to the good. 

There are instances of books sticking to the publisher 
for twenty years, not from lack of merit but from lack 
of appreciation. The age was not prepared for that* 
man's book; he was twenty year- ahead of his age and 
must need.- wait tor the crowd to come up. Well, there 
was the book, and it taught the same tiling- all the 
while, and it did it in straight forward language, mean- 
ing what it said; you didn't have to read between the 
lines, nor beneath them. Yet no influence. The age 
had to learn the same things for itself before it could 



136 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

understand them in the book. If an intelligence could 
possibly come to us from another system of existence, 
discoursing in English about that system, wrote it in a 
book, leaving it with us, that book would be a blank to 
us until we had learned in some other way about that 
system, which we could only do by being a part of that 
system with capacities to realize it. Hence we could 
not now possibly know anything of a spirit system of 
existence, and if we undertake it we impute to it uni- 
verse qualities which makes it a part of the universe, and 
not a spirit system. 

Well, the Bible we will suppose teaches certain things, 
but we can't understand what it teaches, especially if it 
teaches allegorically, or we have to read between lines, 
until we have learned the same things elsewhere. And 
if we have to learn in science and the intellectual evolu- 
tion of the age the same things taught by scriptures 
before we can understand the scriptures, what particular 
benefit are the scriptures as a revelation if they do not 
tell us in plain language what they mean. A first reve- 
lation is better than the second if they teach the same 
►things, and the first is necessary to an understanding of 
the second. If scriptures teach us that the world was 
created in six days, and teach it in such a way as to 
leave the impression that six ordinary days were meant; 
and the world goes on believing that six ordinary days 
were meant as it did so believe until science taught that 
a day is a long creative period, then which has revealed 
the facts of the case? Is science and philosophy given 



II /.vA .V/-;.\ REVIEWED. 137 

us to understand scripture, or is scripture given us to 
understand science and philosophy; which takes preced- 
ence? Scripture has the inside track on time, but 
science and philosophy, on facts. 

The interpreter of seripture 3 whether he be a theolog- 
ian or not, represents the intellectual character of the 
age, and he or the age teaches what is between and be- 
neath the lines; the Biblical writer taught what is in 
the lines. 

The advanced interpreter teaches that God is infinite 
absolute. What did the scriptural writers teach, and did 
they all teach the same thing? This is a question for 
learned theologians themselves, and not for an outsider, 
ignorant of both Hebrew and Greek, and who is not 
overly well versed in the English scriptures. 

The East is prone to Pantheism, and therefore to the 
concept of God as infinite absolute rather than personal. 
This would perhaps incline us to the belief that the 
Hebrew God was. also infinite absolute and not personal. 
But on the other hand, the (rod of the other religions 
of the East being Pantheistic, the Jews may have thought 
to differentiate themselves, and thus make themselves 
a peculiar people by having a personal God, who is, in 
a mysterious and unaccountable way, in all things and 
all thing< in him. The Yedas, believed in by their 
neighbors of India, taught God as in his very nature, 
infinite absolute. The scriptures could only differentiate 
themselves from the Ycda>, in a radical way, by teach- 
ing God as a personality; and thus the Jews in the East 



138 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

became a peculiar people in their concept of God. And 
this peculiarity rendered the Jewish God more accept- 
able to the West, who were of like opinion already, as 
to personality. But whether the Jewish writers taught 
God as a personality, any or all of them, it is evident 
much Western theology thus interprets them. 

A peculiarity, which seems to have attached to the 
entire East, to the Jews with the balance, was and is the 
belief in Boodhs. A Boodh is an incarnation of the infi- 
nite, which appears on the earth as a personalty at long 
intervals to set things aright, which he does by introduc- 
ing a new religion or philosophy. Not that the world is 
constantly going to the bad; on the contrary, it is all the 
while going on to better things. But the human race, 
having worked the philosophy or religion of a by-gone 
Boodh for all there is in it for them, a new Boodh appears 
with a new religion adapted to the advanced intellectual 
condition of the people. The new Boodh begins where 
the old left off, and carries the race op from that point 
to still better things. A few thousand years is supposed 
to wear a Boodh threadbare ; the race gets all out* of his 
religion that there is in it without too deep and expen- 
sive mining; and it calls for a new Boodh, which the God 
promptly furnishes them; for there is always some man 
around ready to act Boodh, in both great and small mat- 
ters, if the race and his neighbors will only have faith 
in him. The last Boodh to appear in India is Gaudama, 
the founder of the present prevailing Boodhism of the 
East. He appeared 500 years before Christ, and his fol- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 189 

lowers are said to number one-third of the human race, 
which is a comfortable working minority. Indeed, it is 
rather better than any other Boodh in any other country 
or among any people has ever done; even our own Joe 
Smith falls behind. Gaudama did not claim that he 
was the only son of God, but was of opinion that he was 
the fourth Boodh that had appeared on the earth; and, 
as they are rare birds, only appearing every few thou- 
sand years, this carries the Eastern races a good way 
back in history, and throws Western genealogy alto- 
gether in the -hade. 

But it is a peculiarity that a Boodh is never a Boodh 
in his own country and among his own people; and, 
generally, he is driven out of his own country, or sent 
out of it in some other more summary way, by the fol- 
lowers of the elder Boodh, who invariably shows 
decided disinclination to being superseded. Gaudama 
fled before Brahma, as a certain young man Absalom 
before David ; but Gaudama's hair was not so long and 
he kept in the middle of the road. He found refuge in 
Persia and with one-third of the human race. A cer- 
tain other Boodh was not accepted as a prophet in his 
own country, nor as a savior by his own people, even 
unto this day. 

Now, our position as to the Boodh business is this. 
The race is progressive, it works certain fundamental con- 
cepts or principles for all there is in them and until they 
are threadbare. The race then is in need of a new 
fundamental concept which some man furnishes, and he is 



140 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

a Boodhj which is slight improvement on dude, to those 
who accept the new principle. Of course he is opposed 
by old-timers, or those who hold on to the old principle. 
Perhaps the man himself thinks he is a Boodh; for it is 
difficult to decide whether he acts from natural or super- 
natural influences. He. any way, generally, has no 
objection to others thinking him a Boodh right. 

But in point of fact he is no more an incarnation of the 
divine than is any man with like capacities. He is the 
outcome of his age ; he oomes because the age calls for a 
man of that character. The age calls for a new funda- 
mental concept. Whoever responds, meeting the require- 
ments of the occasion, is Boodh. But the Boodh teaches 
but little the age does not already know; he is but the 
expression of his age. He does only what the age 
itself is in the act of doing. The woods around him is 
full of the things he teaches; his fundamental principle 
is afloat in the air; it is but the prolongation of old 
philosophies and religion into a new era. The transition 
is not at all a violent one, and no more violent at that 
point than any other. He but systematizes or gives 
definite expression to the tendencies of the age. He has 
the brass to put himself at the head of the procession, 
and frequently is, on his way to the cemetery, chief 
mourner at his own burial. 

It is said every crisis may be relied on to furnish its 
own leader, and necessarily so if a leader is needed, and 
this leader is Boodh of the occasion, whether the occasion 
be important or unimportant. Xot only are there religious 



WISE MEN RE VI FAYED. 141 

Boodhs, but also military Boodhs, political Boodhs and 
Boodhs in every day life. There arc also scientific 
Boodhs, philosphieal Boodhs, literary Boodhs. When yon 
teach a thing that has not been taught, or in a way that 
it has not been taught yon are just so much Boodh. 

But what shall we do to be saved? Materialism says 
give yourself a healthy body; this salvates yon and your 
children: for healthy parents beget healthy children. 
Pantheism says perfect your spirits and through that 
your children's spirits; for children inherit spirit diseases 
as well as physical diseases. Both say salvation in an- 
other life is nonsense, for there is no other life; the body 
is absorbed into matter at death, and the spirit into God. 

Religion says salvation is a thing of the next life, 
which yon are to secure, not by perfecting your body 
and spirit as Materialism and Pantheism suggests, but 
by believing in God and worshipping him. You are to 
believe in the God of the Scriptures when you find out 
who that God is, and yon are to worship him as the 
scriptures direct when yon find that out. Yon can't 
know God by studying him as manifested in yourself 
and environment, that is, in a natural way. Xeither 
would yon know, any more than a fool, how to conduct 
yourself toward the God or your neighbors if the scrip- 
tures didn't tell you. Instead of raiment that would 
stave off the La Grippe you are to wear sackcloth and cold 
ashes; instead of roast beef you are to indulge largely 
in gall and wormwood ; for the body is to be contemned 
and crucified since its care and worldly desires draw 



142 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

you away from God and his worship. Neither are you 
to go off after the vain things of the spirit, such as 
improving your intellectual, emotional and will nature, 
your manners, morals and nature, in relation to the things 
of this life. Your business here is to wait on God, and 
secure in prayer and ceremonies through the merits of 
a savior, or Boodh, the forgiveness of your sins and an 
abundant entrance into everlasting salvation. 

Of course in what we have just said we do great injus- 
tice to certain churches and theology. But if the dis- 
tinguishing characteristics of religion is not the sacred 
books and what they teach, and if those books don't 
teach that the man's salvation depends almost altogether 
on his conduct toward the non-manifested God and 
but little on his conduct toward the manifested God or 
the things of this world, then we are way off in the mat- 
ter. The man's salvation depends on the forgiveness of 
his sins through the merits of a savior, and not on his 
conduct in life, for the man on his dying bed can avail 
himself of the plan of salvation. " While the lamp 
holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return," may not 
be sung by all, but it is the general trend of the matter. 
And in this respect our religion shows the Eastern ori- 
gin and its kinship to other religions of the East. The 
Bhagavad-Gita of India has God to say: "The greatest 
criminal, if he give me his undivided service, is thereby 
purified and sanctified." Evidently, very much religion 
is preached as if it mattered little what a man did in this 
life, he can, in spite of it all, stand in with God, purified 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 143 

and sanctified, by availing himself of a very short and 
simple plan of salvation. Of course all religion is not 
sung that way, and those others would say "this don't 
touch me;' 5 but those others, do they preach from their 
heads as filled from the age in which we live, or from the 
Bible as written in the long ago? The text is taken from 
the Bible, but where do they get the balance of the ser- 
mon? The "Christian" denomination is at least con- 
sistent; they illustrate or support one scripture by 
another; they draw on the scriptures; with them it is 
unlawful to draw on the head or the civilization of the 
age, except in the co-ordination of the various texts. 
From them we get scripture pure and unadulterated by 
modern thought ; they contribute nothing but the co- 
ordination. How would that suit a Eeligio-Philospher, 
or his congregation ? 

The Ethian view is this: In the creation Ethia 
gave the race certain nature, damning it with the bad, 
and salvating it with what was good about it. And that 
is her plan of salvation and damnation all the way 
through, in the race-life, in the generation life, and in 
spirit life to come. Everywhere and in all time the 
man is damned with what is bad in his nature, and saved 
in what is good. That is all the damnation and salva- 
tion he will ever get, and all that he can reasonably ex- 
pect. The way a man salvates himself is by increasing 
the good and thereby diminishing the bad. In this he 
may be aided by other-, who are Boodhs to him to the 
extent of their savins influence. Not only that, but 



144 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

every one of his ancestors in his line of race life has 
had a damning and a saving influence on his nature; 
for the generation man's nature at conception is what 
his line of race life lias made it up to that point, begin- 
ning of course with the character the God ^ave the race 
at creation. The generation man lakes up the line at 
conception and carries it on to death, damning it with the 
bad of his life, saving it with the good. And the whole 
compoodlement, from the God to the beginning of the 
spirit life damns and blesses the man for that life; for 
that life begins as this ends. 

The God comes much nearer damning the race, and 
through it the man, in the beginning than in the end;, 
for no man is as bad as the beginning of his race and 
never will be again. The God when he created the race 
turned it loose to salvate itself; but as a savior to the 
race, he stamped it with the progressive character, which 
is clearly seen in the progress the race has made since it 
emerged from prehistoric times. This saving clause, or 
progressive character is perhaps the only Boodh the God 
gives direct to the race from himself. All other Boodhs 
the race must furnish from its own ranks, as occasion 
calls for them. 

Nor does salvation come to a man all of a sudden, nor 
in a twinkling. It has required the character God gave 
the race in the beginning, and the efforts of all our 
ancestors to salvate us thus far. And a few minutes of 
godly sorrow and repentance wont wipe out the evil 
still in our nature. This godly sorrow is a good thing, 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 145 

and a necessary antecedent to a change of life and the 
change of nature resulting. But when we have the 
godly sorrow and the good resolutions, the thing is only 
begun, and amounts to nothing if they lead not on into 
works. We must persist in a better life until our nature 
is changed; then and not till then have we salvation 
from those evils. And we repeat that this salvation is 
made possible through the merits of the progressive 
character with which the God stamped the race and his 
environment. Salvation begins with the race and ends 
not before death, if then ; for the next life, or lives, may 
be progressive after a like fashion, for anything we know 
to the contrary. 

Then salvation in the future life is the ultimate object, 
but to attain to that salvation we must attain uuto sal- 
vation here, for that life begins as this leaves oif. This 
lite leads on into the other as a man passes ftom one 
room to another; leaving off his coat in one room does 
not make a different man in the next room, nor does 
passing through panel doors, nor the door of death, put 
any change on the spirit man. 

It is our private opinion that a man can only live suc- 
cessfully one life at a time, and those who attempt more 
not only strain themselves, but run the risk of a jack of 
all trades, who is good in none. You can't live the 
heavenly and the earth life at the same time with any 
great success in either. It is not the correct thing to 
live the heavenly life aforetime; time enough for that 
10 



146 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

when you get there. It wont do to neglect the present 
lite, for if you do you will not be prepared for the 
heavenly life when you are in position to live it. Your 
plan is to live well the life you have, trusting in that to 
prepare you for the life to come. A full, w T ell rounded 
life here prepares you for a full, well rounded life there, 
provided you build yourself up here in the things you 
are likely to do there. 

In collegiate life it is unfortunate to become a fresh- 
man until you have passed through the preparatory 
department, and to become a sophomore without having 
been a good freshman is most disastrous. Whether the 
earth life is preparatory or freshman it matters not; we 
must live it well if we expect the goose to haug high 
with us in the next class. If we live well all the lives 
in the category, beginning with the earth life, the presi- 
dent of the institution will no doubt ultimately graduate 
us with the highest honors possible to our nature. In 
this life we have certain studies, and must harmonize 
ourselves emotionally and in will, and act with what we 
learn. In the next life we will have a di fie rent set of 
books, and we will do the same manner of harmonizing 
there. 

But there is one study that runs throughout the course, 
and it is doubtful if we ever get through on that. This 
is the study of Ethia, the infinite absolute. But in all 
lives we can do the best Ave can in that direction. In 
the earth life we can form the best concept we are capa- 
ble of; this will prepare us for a better concept under 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 147 

more favorable circumstances. We must then harmon- 
ize ourselves emotionally, and in will and conduct with 
our concept of Ethia. This is all the worship we can 
give her that she cares for; it is silent adoration ; the 
adoration of intellect, heart and will, which is preferable 
to adoration of the more boisterous kind from lips, con- 
tortions and ceremonies. And in the next life, it is our 
opinion that we shall simply prolong this silent adora- 
tion as our capacities reach out, and that it will be found 
more acceptable than hallelujahs and much harp music. 
But while we can do only this toward the infinite non- 
manifested Ethia, there are very many duties we can per- 
form toward the manifested Ethia. In as much as ye 
have done this unto the least of them ye have done it 
unto me. And it is no doubt preferable to do our duty 
toward Ethia here where we can, rather than attempting 
to do our duty toward Ethia in Ether where we can't. 
Indeed, those who are fanatical in religious duties toward 
Ethia in Ether, but who neglect good manners, morals, 
and common justice toward Ethia manifested in the con- 
catenation, have very much the appearance of men who 
overshoot the mark. Having the eyes elevated at an angle 
of 80 toward zenith will scarcely excuse a man from see- 
ing the things about him. Where, anyway, is the sense 
of looking toward zenith for the non-manifested Ethia, 
who is in all space alike ; evidently it is a habit not well 
founded. Indeed, it is our opinion that if it had been 
intended that we habitually look that way, our eyes 
would have been thus stuck in our heads. As it is, we 



14S ETHIANISM: OR THE 

look square out from the shoulder with greater comfort; 
and looking up goes against the grain unless one is ter- 
ribly bulge-eyed, and after long practice. Besides, we 
never thought a man looked well with his eyes walled, 
be he dead or only in a trance. 

Ethia's purpose in the concatenation, as shown by the 
concatenation, is to create the highest type and the high- 
est perfection in the type. It has been a gradual ascen- 
sion of types from the " without form and void earth" to 
man. And man has been progressive from prehistoric 
times till now, with the presumption that up to historic 
times from the'beginning of the race it was in like man- 
ner a case of progress. Well, evidently, if man does 
Ethia's will he will aid her in this purpose; he will make 
the God's purpose his purpose. He can't create a race, 
but he can perpetuate his own and carry it on in him- 
self and others to a higher excellence. He can perfect 
himself and others, and his children in the nature he 
gives them at conception. All this is rather a pleasant 
sort of duty, rather an agreeable sacrifice ; for while we 
are doing the God's will, we are building ourselves up 
in all the perfections and beatitudes not only for this 
life, but for all lives. 

But we owe duties not only to God and ourselves, 
but also to our environment, since we are all brothers, 
sons of one mother. In gratitude for our own existence 
and comforts, we should do something to make the 
existence of others more perfect and comfortable. 

Our greatest duty is toward man, since with man we 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 149 

contact most. Yet the cruelties practiced by the race 
toward itself is something fearful. We have societies 
for the prevention of cruelty to the animal, but none on 
a large scale to prevent cruelty to man. Great con- 
querors may paint the world red, filling it with tears, 
wailing and woe. Potentates maintain fabulous armies 
to subdue enemies at home and fight them abroad, the 
people footing the bill. A money power may use that 
power and the power of the government to increase the 
wealth they do not need at the expense of a people 
needy at all points. All this is nothing to a society for 
the prevention of cruelty to the animal; but if you want 
to see their hair turn the wrong way and hear them spit, 
just step on a cat's tail. Doubtless societies for the 
prevention of cruelty to the animal is a good thing, but 
societies for the prevention of cruelty to man would be 
superbly better. 

Man having lived the best earth life possible to him, 
Ethia may take his spirit out to Ether to dwell there 
as a conscious personality, if she is of opinion the race 
or any part of it is worthy the honor. Otherwise man's 
spirit goes to the general fund and emanates from there 
in some future type higher than man. 

We agree with Materialists that we must salvate the 
body with wholesome food, exercise, cleanliness and 
plenty of fresh air. A sound body is a powerful good 
thing to have as a foundation for spiritual excellence, 
and as the instrument through which the spirit acts on 
the environment in this life; and it is not our opinion 



150 ETHIANISM: OB THE 

it would thrive on gall and wormwood. Many vigor- 
ous spirits however are in frail bodies; and as death 
comes on the spirit shows an imbecility not pertaining 
to it, but to the instrument of communication in this life. 
But we can't think that we only live till we die, nor 
are we of opinion that all is matter. We would like to 
know what matter is anyway. You only know physical 
things in physical qualities; if that is not matter what 
is it? But you know spirit in spirit tilings in spirit 
attributes. You know as much about spirit as you do 
about matter; one you know by the senses, the other in 
consciousness. Yet the physical individual is not the 
same as the spirit individual; they have not the same 
qualities; then how can you say they are the same; how 
can you say with Materialists all is matter, or with Pan- 
theists all is spirit? Materialists say what you call 
spirit in man is a property of matter, and is but a pro- 
longation of what you see everywhere in nature. Yes, 
it is a prolongation of what you see everywhere in na- 
ture, but that "what" is spirit and not force or a prop- 
erty of matter, since you know nothing of matter except 
in physical qualities. In like manner man's body is a 
prolongation of that which you see everywhere in nature, 
which "what" is matter. That is, the concatenation is 
dual throughout, spirit on one side, physical on the 
other. Ethia manifested in physical qualities is the 
physical individual, and is what you call matter; man- 
ifested in spirit attributes she is there what you call 
spirit or pantheistic God. Then matter and spirit are 



II 7 v /; MEN REVIEWED. 151 

Dot identified with each other but with a third, antece- 
dent and beyond both. Of course Materialists and Pan- 
theists will never agree, or convince each other. You 
had as well talk of two converging lines coinciding at 
points before they meet. 

We can also agree with Pantheists that salvation in this 
life is a good thing for the spirit of both the man and 
his descendants. Indeed the materialistic and panthe- 
istic salvation in this life is a necsssary antecedent to the 
salvation in the life that follows; therefore, not only good 
for the generation man, but also for the race man, and for 
both in the religious man's salvation in the life to come. 

But we can't think this life ends the matter. Evi- 
dently the physical man goes to some primitive condi- 
tion in the earth. But what proof that the spirit man 
loses its personality in absorption into the spirit, God? 
True, no man sees the spirit go out of the concatenation, 
and none but Spiritualists see it after. But then no 
man sees it absorbed. The truth of the matter is, no 
ordinary man ever sees spirit, even in the flesh ; he sees 
only the physical attendant, the effects it has on the 
physical nature. In the dead man you see no such 
effects, and he evidently is not conscious as is the live 
man. You only know spirit direct in consciousness, 
and if the spirit goes out of the dead body the conscious- 
ness that knows it o^nQ> with it, and fails to talk back. 
Then, as to knowing in any of these ways, whether the 
spirit retains its conscious personality, or is absorbed 



152 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

into God, honors are easy. We can only reason about 
the matter. 

Well, Ethia's sole purpose in the concatenation seems 
to be to build up higher conscious personality. True, 
when most things die, the spirit, unless at once appro- 
priated as food, goes to the general fund, and from 
there into the higher creation. But are we to suppose 
she will go on everlastingly repeating this process? She 
is investing a large amount of spirit in the concatena- 
tion ; will she never realize on that investment by taking 
spirits to Ether, forming a spirit system of existence 
there ? Or will she everlastingly continue reinvesting in 
higher types of earth existence. Man thinks the thing 
is becoming monotonous if he is not made an exception 
to the general rule. And he may be. All men's spirits 
may go out to Ether. Only a part who are prepared for 
that sort of thing may go, while those who do not pass 
muster may remain in the concatenation as a kind of 
purgatory, to be worked over in a new type preparatory 
to final acceptance. Who will hear Gabriel's horn, and 
rally round the flag, boys, in Ether? 

There is a large class of educated thinkers who hanker 
after nirwanna, or absorption into Ethia in Ether; they 
seem to want to get back home before their mamma 
finds that they are out. These no doubt will be grati- 
fied since they are anxious about the matter. But the 
absorption they will attain to is absorption, not into 
Ethia in Ether, but into the plane fund of spirit, which 
is in truth the pantheistic God with whom they seek 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 153 

union. And one can readily understand the indignation 
of one of these parties, who, after "resting" for a season 
with his pantheistic God, reeminates into the higher 
earth type. He is filled with disgust, and has room only 
for the remark, I thought I was everlastingly done with 
this eternal foolishness. 

Scientists will go to heaven if the atom and the forces 
don't keep them out, but whether they will go as a force 
or a spirit we have not the least idea. We wouldn't, 
however, like to risk calling God an atom; and for this 
offense scientists may be kept "transmuting" round in 
the concatenation until they learn better manners. t 

Very few theologians will reach heaven if they insist 
on going through St. Peter's door; but if they consent to 
enter the Ether heaven through the door of death there 
is abundant walking room for both them and their flocks. 
Putting devil up on God, however, is a terribly risky 
business, even if God didn't make the world altogether 
to suit them. 

What kind of occupation here is most conducive to a 
jolly time there? Well, perhaps we had better practice 
the music here that we expect to play there. If you 
think sackcloth and ashes, gall and wormwood, long, 
dolorous faces, with eyes set at an angle, will be all the 
go there, by all means practice them here before you go. 
Or if you think war, politics, or dealing in stocks will 
be a paying business there, your proficiency here will 
serve you a good turn there. Or if lying, stealing, 
slandering and all that, is to be the chief business there, 



154 ETHIANISM: OR HIE 

you should be well up iu those things. But if you think 
spirit and emotional intercourse, music and all the refine- 
ments will be no go, it would be useless for you to put 
in any time on those things here as in any way a means 
of ultimate salvation. This life must needs lead on up 
to and into that life; for the spirit begins that life with 
the self-same nature it has when it passes through the 
door ol death. 

When the spirit has passed through and the door 
slams to behind him, what will be the outlook? Will 
heaven and hell be anywhere in sight? Certain 
advanced theology who have fallen a good way from a 
literal rendering of the scriptures, tell us that heaven 
and hell are spirit conditions, and that men live in 
heaven and hell in this life all the same as they do in 
the next life. This is doubtless true as far as it goes. 
But we are inclined to think that there is something 
more definite and tangible about heaven and hell than 
that amounts to. In rejecting the word of the scriptures 
they go to the extreme of loosing part of the spirit. 
Now if spirits have been going out from the earth ever 
since man was created; and they have been going out 
from other parts of the universe system; and if they 
have also been going out from other systems of existence; 
and if there are spirits in Ether who have not come up 
through any system of existence — then by this time 
there must be a goodly crowd there, and great diversity 
of character. 

Well, it is a profound observation, worthy all accep- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 155 

tation, and of which the reader may have heard mention, 
that birds of a feather flock together. Whether spirits 
from different planets would associate together, or these 
with those from the sun, or those with spirits from the 
stars, is not at all certain. Nor is it at all probable that 
spirits from other systems of existence would or could 
associate with those from the universe system. And it 
is morally certain the members of the royal household 
would not confab with the plebeian crowd who have come 
up through systems, and out of many trials and much 
tribulation. Not only that, but good spirits would not 
associate with bad. nor the intelligent with the illiterate; 
their tastes are not the same. Good spirits associating 
together would make a local heaven in that part of the 
country. Evil spirits would associate in other parts and 
thus we would have local hells. And if then they 
should nominate by acclamation and elect the worst in 
the lot as Captain Jinks, affixing tail and prefixing 
horns, we would, after all, have personal devils. Or 
perchance, if there are evil spirits in the royal family, 
these most likely would insist on acting Jinks. Yes, 
we believe in local hells and heavens, and a great many 
of them. You can find them on earth in both cities 
and country even unto this day. 

Certain other theology, which has fallen away from a 
literal interpretation of scripture, concede that heaven 
is an indescribable place or location at the center of 
infinity where God's presence is specially manifested. 
Now this special manifestation of the presence of God is 



156 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

a position to which all parties subscribe. Science some- 
times becomes enthusiastic over the scene that must pre- 
sent itself to an inhabitant ot Saturn, standing on the 
body of the planet looking out on its rings. They say 
matter there makes a special manifestation of itself. No 
man who sports a God of his own but supposes his God 
makes special manifestation of himself in certain loca- 
tions, and why not at the center. Yes, the center is the 
place for the grand combination. But after all, even 
with free tickets, the spirit may find some difficulty in 
finding the center. Center is a term invented for use in 
a system of existence, and has no meaning or applica- 
tion to an infinity that has no circumference, limits or 
center. Yes, yes, the only bother is in finding the cen- 
ter of an infinity that has no center. When we succeed 
in that, there is no doubt about the fireworks and the 
rest. And it does not matter whether it is a Material, 
Pantheistic, or what kind of a show it is just so it is a 
good one, which no doubt it will be, considering the 
elaborate preparations and the magnitude of the occa- 
sion. 

But there is a center which the spirit can find ; indeed 
it finds itself in that center as soon as it passes through 
the door of death. If Ether fills all space and perme- 
ates all existence, if not in the center of infinity then it 
must be nigh on to thereabouts. And why may we not 
suppose Ethia makes a special manifestation of herself 
in Ether. If spirits go out from the universe and all 
systems of existence, that is a manifestation worth look- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 157 

ing at, and perhaps beats Saturn's rings. And we know 
not what other special manifestations of her presence 
Ethia may make in Ether. We only know the mani- 
festation she makes of her presence in the universe, but 
certainly we may conjecture a more satisfactory manifes- 
tation in other space. It is not at all certain she does 
not make a more gratifying manifestation in other parts 
of the universe to the intelligences of those parts. But 
the man on an high pedestal says, "Stop there, Hal, an 
ye love me." 

Xo doubt the spirit man will find his appropriate loca- 
tion in Ether with no thanks to angel wings. Per- 
chance he will gravitate there; at any rate it will be an 
occasion of momentous gravity. Whether that location 
will be heaven, hell, or only purgatory, will depend on 
the spirit's nature, and that will depend on the character 
God gave the race in its creation, then on his ancestors, 
aud finally on himself in the generation life up to death 
or separation from the body. That all this fixes irrevo- 
cably the character of the spirit for all eternity we do 
not believe. Perhaps the chances of spiritual growth 
in the next life are much more favorable than in this. If, 
unfortunately, we drift into one of those hell pools, 
doubtless the parson will send us a missionary. There is 
always some one round ready to mix himself up w r ith 
his neighbor's affairs. 

But will the spirit walk golden streets, wear a gold 
crown, playing a harp, shouting at the top of his voice? 
We fear not. We have doubts about spirits in Ether 



158 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

peregrinatiDg round as do spirits in the flesh; we have 
watched wreaths of smoke and thought perhaps that is 
the way of it. As to the street work, the inhabitants 
from no two planets would probably agree on that, and 
spirits from different systems could not. If the Jupiter 
man insisted on paving with tin the earth man would 
be disgusted, and tell him flatly, of such stuff, in the 
country I came from, they make coffee pots. All that 
diverse assembly would not fancy harp music. And 
just how a spirit would shout as we shout after having 
lost his shouting outfit we can't make out. Again a 
French burr as a hat for a man in the flesh would not 
be a more weighty matter than the gold crown to the 
spirit man. You can't furnish heaven with earth 
material even to suit the tastes of all earth men. What 
would a man from Wall street care for a gold croAvn; 
he would prefer a plug hat in his any day in the week. 
Fancy Wagner performing on the Jew's harp, or com- 
posing for it! Just think of Col. Ingersoll shouting 
hallelujah before the throne! 

When you condition heaven with universe qualities 
you make it part of the universe, and you are not 
thinking of heaven at all. But those who insist on having 
and giving us a concept of heaven and heavenly things, 
necessarily invest it with universe qualities, and phys- 
ical qualities at that, for they can only conceive of a 
thing by imputing to it perceptive qualities such as 
they know in the universe. 



1 1 r ISE MEN REVIE 1 1 r ED. 159 

Well, spirit and a spirit system have none of these 
qualities, therefore they cannot be known that way. 
When the spirit passes out of the universe it takes none 
of the physical universe with it, for the spirit in a spirit 
system of existence has no physical body from the resur- 
rection or elsewhere, and needs none in its business 
there. It needs not a physical body through which 
to know and act, for there is nothing physical in its 
new environment to know or act on in that way. 
A- a spirit in a spirit environment it acts purely in 
the spirit way. What heavenly use would it have 
for a physical body, and what use, known or con- 
jectured, would it have for anything physical in its 
environment. 

The universe is a system by possessing- certain quali- 
ties. Ether and a spirit system is different because pos- 
sessing different qualities and attributes ; if they possessed 
the same qualities they would be the same systems. 
The spirit in the spirit system is the same as in the uni- 
verse, but in the spirit system, the physical has dropped 
away ; it was left at the door of death. 

But the man from an high pedestal says, I've got to 
have a concept of God, heaven, and of spirit existence 
there. It' I can't get it any other way I'll invest it all 
with universe qualities. So you had as well lay down 
your golden streets, put on your crown, take up your 
harp and shout hallelujah, for you've got her to do. 
All thing- were made for man and all knowledge given 



160 ETHIANISM: OR 1HE 

him in the revealed word. Whatever is in man's feeble 
ken is something ; all else is "nothing." 

Great Scott ! is not the balloon inflated; but scarcely 
so much so as the next wise man. 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 161 



CHAPTER VII. 
IDEALISM. 

Shall the process of knowing annihilate the thing known? 
General considerations— A theory of perception — Does the 
object duplicate its qualities in the senses, and do we prop- 
erly locate in Externality ?— If so, the world is, and is what 
it appears to be. — Don't run to seed. 

To narrow existence down to what man knows about 
it is a reasonably fine thing; to narrow that down to a 
man's spirit is a little finer thing; but when you narrow 
man's spirit down to thought relations or consciousness 
states you've the thing down to a very fine point indeed, 
and only total skepticism could make any improvement 
on it. 

To make God the servitor of man, having him create 
existence for his exclusive benefit, and give his only son 
because the devil had interfered with his good intentions, 
is bad enough on God. To make him, as Berkeley does, 
an organ grinder to grind out man's thoughts without 
providing him the proverbial monkey is worse. But to 
pall him "nothing" until he self-develops into the uni- 
verse is just too bad, and is the next thing to snuffing him 
out altogether. 

Berkeley, in defense of his God, denies the external 
physical world from which antagonistic Gods are infer- 



162 • E1HIANISM: OR THE 

red, and there is nothing but his God and man's spirit. 
Philosophy, in its sublety and inexorable logic, denies the 
spirit world, and there is nothing but thought relations 
or consciousness states, and the imminent "nothing." 

This is all very light diet, and one wonders how they 
grow it — how they get from the physical and spirit 
world of the senses and consciousness, in which the vul- 
gar believe, to the thought relation world of thelearned. 
Evidently the wiser a man becomes the less he knows. 
The vulgar man, ignorant of the process of seeing, 
believes in what he sees, and that the external world is 
just what it appears to be. Ignorant of brain processes 
he believes he has a spirit. We may therefore score it 
as one palpable fact that a knowledge of the process of 
knowing knocks the thing known into pie. 

Well, if the world of spirit and physical things is a 
reality, and what they appear to the senses and conscious- 
ness to be, and the reasoning of the learned is faultless, 
then those wise men must reason from false premises. 
They fail to understand the process of knowing; and it 
is this failure to understand the process of knowing that 
knocks existence into pie, and not the actual process 
itself. A knowledge of the true process of knowing 
ought to establish the world on the how-firm-me-founda^ 
tions which the vulgar give it, if the vulgar are right in 
the matter. 

But before looking at the process of perception we 
will refer to a few general considerations. To the 
animal, to the unlearned man, to the learned man in 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 163 

practice anywhere outside theory, the individual, whether 
physical or spirit, not only is but is just what it appears 
to he. The animal and the unlearned man don't 
analyze; they make no inquiry within; they don't care 
whether the individual is composed of elements or atoms, 
or whether it is a manifestation of God, or the creation 
of a God out of nothing. The important fact to him 
and to all men practically is that the thing is, and is 
what it appears to be; and of' this the vulgar man has 
no doubt; it never occurs to him to doubt. This belief 
is the universal experience of men in all ages; and the 
race is in position to judge of the matter from all points 
of view. It is a universal belief founded on universal 
experience. To this the universal belief, up to certain 
time, that the sun revolved round the earth is given as 
an offset by Idealists, but of the sun's motion they saw 
only from one point of view and had only the experience 
of one of the senses. This universal belief founded on 
universal experience certainly ought to have some weight 
against theory. Two surfaces ground together exactly 
coincide; this universal belief ground into the intel- 
lectual nature of man in the ages would finally result 
in intellectual harmony with objective fact. There 
would finally result, not perhaps Leibnitz's pre-estab- 
lished harmony, but an established harmony answering 
all the purposes of truth. If we have senses, which 
Idealists must deny, since they are a part of the external 
world, they would know the external world as it is if 
they knew it at all. Whence should come the harmony, 



164 ETHIANISM: OJR THE 

pre-established or otherwise, between the senses, and a 
world that is not, or not as it appears to be. It is said 
to be impossible we should know the external world as 
it is through the senses; to us it seems impossible we 
should know the world as it is not, by the senses. 

But it is said that in dreams and in diseased condi- 
tions of the nerve system we see things that are not. 
This is not perception. In perception the nerve condi- 
tion is caused^ by the object operative on the sense. 
True this diseased condition is the same as the nerve 
condition in perception; and the condition in ideation 
is the same as in perception. But the guarantee of the 
truthfulness of perception is that the object produces 
the nerve condition. In diseased conditions and in 
ideation we have not this guarantee. Hence in diseased 
conditions we can see a thing as well where it is as 
where it isn't. And we can ideate many things that do 
not exist, Idealists to the contrary notwithstanding; but 
we never can in normal conditions see a thing that is 
not, or not as we see it. 

Again it is said the senses make different reports 
about a thing, and therefore none of them tell us the 
truth. In the name of the Lord why should he give us 
five senses to tell us the same thing about an object. 
All men are not so hard to convince as are Idealists : 
they don't need to be told a thing five times over before 
they have faith. We know the individual in its quali- 
ties. Each of the five senses is adapted to knowing the 
individual in certain qualities. And when we have 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 165 

applied all the senses we know all we can know of the 
object in the perceptive way with our present capacities. 
The object, however, may have other qualities, but we 
have qo senses for their realization, and these qualities 
are as nothing to us. II we had more senses we might 
know more of the object, other qualities; if we had 
fewer senses evidently we would know less. These 
same things are true of consciousness; we can only real- 
ize our spirit in certain attributes ; if we had greater 
capacity we might realize it in other attributes. Xo 
doubt the objects, whether spirit or physical, have the 
qualities we realize in them; whether they have other 
qualities is a matter of conjecture, which perhaps amounts 
to little. 

When the man on an high pedestal says there is 
nothing of existence but thought relations, he perpetrates 
much absurdity, and his vanity of self and race is his 
only apology. Suppose thought relations or conscious- 
ness states is all we can know, is it not preposterous to 
say for that reason that consciousness states is all there 
is of existence ? Are we to make our feeble capacities 
the measure of existence ? Are we to drag God down 
fmm his absolute character and fit his proportions to 
our own incapacity ? Only the total Skeptic can im- 
prove on the Idealist. To him there is nothing, because, 
forsooth, he can know nothing. Well, suppose he can 
know nothing; it is of course bad on him, but in nowise 
bothers God, nor the other things he has created ; it 



166 ETHIAN1SM: OR THE 

certainly does not annihilate them, or if so the power of 
man's ignorance is great and fearfully miraculous. 

From an implicit reliance on the senses and conscious- 
ness on down to total skepticism it is a gradual accumu- 
lation of skepticism ; and total skepticism is total vanity, 
since it is a denial of existences because man cannot sat- 
isfy himself that he knows anything about it. He has no 
criterion for the senses and consciousness, and that fact 
knocks what they say into pie. 

When Berkeley denied the external word in defense of, 
as he supposed, his own concept of God it was skepti- 
cism that far, and Berkeley aimed for the thing to stop 
there. When Idealists followed, denying the spirit world, 
we were indulged iu a little more skepticism. When 
consciousness states or thought-relations are denied we 
have our fill of skepticism. Every man aims for every 
other man to stop where he does in the downward course 
of annihilation ; but many see no reason, once started, 
for stopping anywhere short of hard-pan, and they land 
at total skepticism. 

There is no criterion for consciousness any more than 
the senses, if for that reason one is not reliable then the 
other is not. Your stopping at any point on the skep- 
tical route is arbitrary, and the stop is made not because' 
your intellect approves but because your emotional 
nature demands it. Total reliance, and total skepticism 
are the only two consistent positions. If you can deny 
perceptive qualities, therefore the physical individual, 
you can deny consciousness qualities, therefore the spirit 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 167 

individual: ending at a denial of, not only physical and 

spirit individuality but of spirit and physical qualities; 
and there is no God, no individual and no thought rela- 
tions or consciousness states. Of course certain philos- 
ophy has said consciousness is reliable, but philosophy 
has said many things; where's your criterion? Science 
and the vulgar have said the senses are reliable, and all 
men say so when it comes to a matter of experience; 
for no man buts his head against a post if he can help 
himself. 

The unknown unknowable infinite Ethia has made 
diverse manifestations; she has created a great variety of 
existence. Among her other manifestations or creations is 
the universe; and scattered round loose over the face of 
the earth, a very small part of the universe, is man. Man 
has senses, consciousness and the power of ideation. By 
these capacities he knows himself in spirit attributes, 
and the external world in physical qualities. He knows 
something about the surface of the earth, a little about 
the balance of the universe within the reach of the tele- 
scope; nothing of the universe beyond; nothing of Ethia 
in Ether; nothing of other systems of existence in 
Ether; and straightway he concludes God made the 
world for him, and that what he knows is something, 
while all else is uot else at all, and even God himself is 
" nothing." Man in the order of creation comes on the 
scene late in the season, but he is no sooner here than 
he begins puffing himself up with a huge inflate. At 
auv rate that is his habit now, whatever he mav have 



168 ETHIANISM: OR 1HE 

thought of himself early in the race-life. Religion tells 
him God made him perfect and gave him an environ- 
ment altogether lovely; and if now there is a screw 
loose anywhere in the machine, look to the devil for the 
fall, and to Christ for the redemption. Hegel congratu- 
lates both God and man that God is about, for the first 
and only time in his life, to realize himself objectively, 
which he does in fine shape in man while reading Heg- 
ePs philosophy. Of course God cares nothing for the 
balance of existence and next to ''.nothing" for himself 
just so man is satisfied and made comfortable. Of course 
God does not realize himself objectively in the balance 
of the universe nor in other systems of existence. 
Nowhere but in man, and man nowhere but in Hegel's 
philosophy. 

Now the truth of the matter is that God realizes him- 
self objectively throughout the universe, and in all exist- 
ence; and he has done so in all time; it is not at all a 
late thing; he didn't have to wait till Hegel wrote his 
philosophy, or until any man proclaimed his religion. It 
is real remarkable the influence certain philosophy and 
religion has with God. God don't, or can't realize him- 
self objectively until Hegel writes his philosophy; and 
God does not wake up to the fact that men are going to 
hell pell-mell, and as fast as they know how, until some 
nineteen centuries ago a few Jews in certain religious 
expression posted him, and at the same time made pro- 
vision to stop that sort of thing. Yes! yes! for the 
man on an high pedestal everything begins when his 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 196 

philosophy and religion begins; antecedent to that there 
was "nothing." Well, the human race, and God espe- 
cially, ought to feel under stupendous obligations to 

these men. 

Water realizes the balance of the earth objectively, 
otherwise it would not go to the ocean. The earth real- 
izes the sun objectively, or it would not revolve round it. 
God in man realizes himself objectively to the extent 
that man knows anything, and he has been doing so 
ever since man did know anything. But he realizes 
himself in much liner shape in science than in any phi- 
losophy or religion. The Hegelian philosophy is said 
to be the contemplation of the sell-development of the 
absolute. Religion makes much ado about telling us of 
creation. Well, science has for quite a while been tell- 
ing us the same things. True, science calls it evolution ; 
philosophy, self-development ; religion, creation from 
nothing; Jones, manifestation of God in certain space, 
in certain combination of qualities; but evidently we all 
mean precisely the same thing. The concatenation is just 
what it is, and has come up in time to what it is in cer- 
tain way, and it is that way we all mean when we use 
our expressions. Ethia manifesting herself in certain 
combination and degree of certain qualities in certain 
space is self-development into the individual, or creation 
of the individual from "nothing;" if you call Ethia 
"nothing" until she manifests herself to your capacities; 
and the universe is made up of these individualities, 



170 ETHIANISM: OR 1HE 

self-developments, creations from " nothing/' or whatever 
else you may choose to call them. 

Man is one of these self-developments, or manifesta- 
tions. He is last and highest so far. He is highest 
because of his higher order of spirit, and his spirit is of 
higher order because of superior capacities. But man is 
no more real than the rest. His physical nature is no 
more real than other physical natures; his spirit is no 
more real than the spirit side of all things else. Nor are 
any of his qualities and attributes any more real than 
those of the balance of the concatenation. Man has no 
surer hold on existence than the rock. All things seen 
and felt are real, or nothing is real. Only the man on 
an high pedestal can conceive that being in man's mind 
has anything to do with the absolute existence of any- 
thing whatever. Of course, being in his mind makes a 
thing something to him in the knowledge way, but what 
has that to do with the absolute existence of the thing? 
Everything in existence owes its existence to the noume- 
non of that existence, and not to man's feeble concep- 
tion. Man's capacities determine relative existence, but 
certainly not absolute existence; when it comes to a 
matter of absolute existence, man takes his chances with 
the rest. All things, man with the balance, rest on the 
noumenon, and not on man's pate, be it never so bald or 
learned. 

Man with his capacities is capable of knowing some- 
thing of himself and external nature. He knows him- 
self spiritually in consciousness. He knows his physi- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 171 

cal nature and other physical nature through the senses; 
indeed, that is what he has senses for, and not for the 
beauty of the thing. Man is also capable of ideation. 
But there is this important difference, that you can't see 
or be conscious of a thing that does not exist, but you 
can ideate just anything you choose within your capacity 
of ideation. Yet you can't ideate a thing without qual- 
ities, or with any but universe qualities that you are 
capable of perceiving. 

Idealists tell us consciousness is reliable and ideation 
is reliable; for the idea is the same as the thing. But 
they tell us the senses are no go; indeed, there are no 
senses. Science and the vulgar take a different view. 
The vulgar, knowing nothing of the process of seeing, 
believe in the existence of what they see; the learned, 
knowing something of the process, deny that we see 
anything external. Berkeley tells us we are only con- 
scious of certain spirit conditions which are produced by 
God in certain law aud order way. Philosophy tells us 
there are only thought relations or consciousness states 
which is the eternal consciousness in our space humping 
itself into that manner of thing. As to the senses, a 
knowledge of the process of seeing annihilates the thing 
seen. Is the vulgar right in the thing, or the learned 
wrong- in the process? To decide this, suppose we 
begin down as near as we can at the bottom of things 
and build up. 

Knowledge is the noumenon of existence realizing 
or knowing itself. If man's spirit, as an individualiza- 



172 ETHIANISM: OB THE 

tion of that noumenon, knows itself in the same space 
where the knowing is done, then that is self-realization, 
subjective knowledge, knowledge of the Ego. If nou- 
menon as in spirit knows itself in the same space in 
physical qualities, that is, the body which the spirit per- 
meates, or if it knows itself in external space in physical 
qualities, that is, the external world, then that is per- 
ceptive knowledge, objective knowledge, knowledge of 
the non-ego. But in all cases it is the noumenon real- 
izing itself. And in some sense it is all objective knowl- 
edge; for when the spirit realizes itself it does so in its 
attributes of thought, emotion, will, and in something 
of an objective way. Then the great difference is that 
in consciousness knowledge, the noumenon realizes itself 
in the same space, and in spirit attributes, while in per- 
ceptive knowledge it realizes itself in external space 
and in physical qualities. Well, if the noumenon of 
existence can realize itself in the same space in spirit 
attributes it is no great stretch of imagination to suppose 
it capable of realizing itself in external space in physical 
qualities. The difference of the two kinds of knowl- 
edge is space and qualities, and this difference of space 
and qualities determines the individual, for the indi- 
vidual is the noumenon in certain space manifesting 
itself in certain qualities. All individuality are identi- 
fied in noumenon, but differentiated in qualities and 
space. Then, that noumenon in one individuality should 
realize itself in another; although that other individ- 
uality may have different space and qualities, does not 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 173 

after all seem so very remarkable. And when we 
remember that not only are spirit and physical things 
identified in nonmenon, but both spirit and physical 
things are identified with the medium in which they 
exist and through which they know, that is, with Ether, 
then that there should be knowledge does not strike us 
with much amaze. To us this last sentence is absurd, 
and only a repetition of what we had said before; for to 
us Ether is the nonmenon non manifested, and individ- 
uality is that nonmenon manifested, and of course it is 
an all-round identity. 

It is quite possible that the failure to recognize this 
all-round identity of existence is the source of much 
error. Men speak of physical and spirit things as not 
only radically different from each other, but also as 
radically different from the medium in which they exist. 
This evidently is erroneous. Ethia manifested in certain 
space is the individual, whether spirit or physical, non- 
manifested, she is what you are pleased to call Ether or 
medium. Ether and all things in that Ether are identi- 
fied in Ethia. Spirit and matter are therefore identified 
in Ethia, and it is not so strange that they should affect 
each other; it is not so strange that matter should 
impress itself on spirit, nor that spirit should know and 
control matter. 

Physical things and spirit things are differentiated in 
certain qualities we are capable of knowing. But beside 
being identified in noumenon, we have no way of know- 
ing how far they are identified in qualities that we have 



174 ETHIANISM: OB THE 

no capacities to realize. Indeed we have no proof that 
spirit has not all the qualities physical, but we do know 
they have not those qualities in a degree and combina- 
tion that ordinary men can realize or detect. Spirit 
mediums say thev are more highly gifted in this respect; 
and we would be glad to be convinced that they can see 
spirit outside the flesh. At the same time it is impossi- 
ble for us to know dogmatically that physical things 
have not all the spirit attributes. Hence, it is impossi- 
ble that we should in this life be as thoroughly con- 
vinced as we would wish to be of a distinct and separable 
spirit existence. Hence, it is impossible that Material- 
ists and Pantheists should convince each other. Hence, 
the only possible way for Materialists and Pantheists to 
agree with each other is to agree with a third man. 
Materialism and Pantheism are two converging lines 
which meet at Ethia, or the infinite absolute God. 
They can agree on Ethia beyond both matter and spirit. 
Then they can agree that matter is Ethia manifested in 
physical qualities, and spirit, Ethia manifested in spirit 
attributes; and when they do this they will not be so 
hugely surprised that matter affects spirit, and that spirit 
knows and controls matter. And when Idealists recog- 
nize this common brotherhood of physical and spirit 
existence they will perhaps not be so certain that we 
cannot know the external world as it is through the 
senses; they may conclude that consciousness is not our 
only reliable way of knowing, and that there is some- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 175 

thing beside and more tangible than thought relations 
or consciousness states. 

But concede that we can't know a thing with any 
certainty till it is within consciousness. Is there any 
way of bringing the external world into that sphere? 
This brings us back to the process of knowing the 
external world, which for the wise man knocks the vul- 
gar man's external world of realty into pie. As we 
have said, a knowledge of the process of knowing the 
external world, instead of annihilating it, ought to give 
us greater confidence in the how firm me foundations, 
ye things of externality. Can we bring the external 
world within the sphere of consciousness ? Well, we 
don't have to bring the noumenon of the thing within 
the senses for that is already there identified with the 
noumenon of the object perceived. Then that is a great 
load taken off our shoulders at the very start, and is 
perhaps something of a relief to the reader who may 
have thought we were going to dump a camel or moun- 
tain bodily into his eye. The senses and the object are 
identified in noumenon. Then all we have to do to get 
the object into the senses within the sphere of conscious- 
ness is to dump the qualities of the object into the senses, 
nor do we aim to dump all the qualitiesintothesame sense. 
If we could do that then we would only need the one 
sense, whereas we have five, at least. We propose dump- 
ing color, form, position, movement into the eye; solidity, 
form, temperature into the *ense of touch, sound into the 
ear, other qualities into the nose and mouth ! If the object 



176 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

has other qualities we do not propose dumping those, 
for we have no dumping ground for them. When we 
have done this we have within the senses and conscious- 
ness all that is distinctively camel or mountain; for the 
noumenon of senses, camel and mountain, is always the 
same. If after getting these qualities within the senses 
we realize them there in consciousness, but attend to 
them in external space, we will be perceiving the object 
in its appropriate location in the qualities we have senses 
to realize. 

Xow the senses are senses because they are senses, and 
as senses they can do what nothing else under the sun 
can do. They can duplicate temporarily the qualities 
the object has permanently. The mirror can tempora- 
rily duplicate the color, form, and movement of an 
object before it. But the trouble with the mirror is that 
it has not optic nerves ramifying its surface, nor has it 
a brain behind it. What the bother is with Idealists 
we do not know. Hence, the mirror is not conscious of 
the duplicate on its surface, which proves its inferiority 
to the ordinary Idealist's intellect. The mirror also 
refuses utterly to place the qualities, temporarily dupli- 
cated on its surface, in the external object, causing or 
producing the duplicate, where the qualities permanently 
and of right belong, which again proves the parity of 
the mirror and the Idealist's intellect. Not that we would 
insinuate that Idealists are glass men, for they are only 
such in theory. When they go out into the external 
world they find it good for their health to attend to the 



WISE MEN BE VIE WED. 177 

quality in the object, neglecting the duplicate in the 
sense. If a thunder-gust conies on apace they hie 
themselves away to shelter all the same as the vulgar, 
which they would scarcely do if they did not momenta- 
rily forget their idealism and relapse into vulgarity. If 
the thunder was altogether in their ear, and the gust 
otherwise exclusively in their person, evidently a bumb 
proof protection against externality would do them no 
good. 

But does the external object duplicate its qualities in 
the senses ? And if it does, do we properly locate the 
object in external space ? If we do, then in perception 
we know absolute truth; for we know the absolute in 
certain space in the qualities it exhibits to our capacities 
there. And this is all we know of any object, spirit or 
physical, in consciousness, ideation, or any way, for it is 
all there is of the object. In perception we know the 
qualities of the object by those qualities duplicating 
temporarily in the senses. 

The first question is, have the senses, for the time of 
perceiving, the same qualities as the object? There is 
little doubt the object produces some change in the 
sense. It does not change its noumenon, then it must 
change it in its qualities. And what more reasonable 
supposition than that the object changes the quality of 
the sense by giving the sense its own qualities? Would 
the object be likely to give the sense qualities it has not 
itself? Does the object before it give to the picture in 

12 



178 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

the eye its own color, form and movement, or some 
other? Does the apple duplicate its own qualities in 
the nose and mouth, or some other quality? Does the 
ringing bell duplicate its own qualities in the ear, or 
some other? Does the heated stove duplicate its own 
qualities in our person, or some other quality? 

But we are told we can only know the external world 
through the sensations it causes in us, and that these 
sensations are not like anything in externality. Of 
course a sensation in us could only be like the same 
sensation in another man, or the animal. Only man 
and the animal are capable of sensations, for they alone 
have senses. In like manner they alone are capable of 
emotion, since they alone have a brain. A rock is not 
a success in the sensation, or emotional way. 

But the bother is, we do not know the external world 
through the sensations any more than we know 7 our 
gal through the emotion she stirs up in our bosom. 
The sensation, nor the emotion, is the avenue through 
Avhich we know externality; they are objects of con- 
sciousness knowledge, but not avenues of perceptive 
knowledge. In them we know how the external world 
affects us sensationally and emotionally; we thus know 
the external world relatively but not absolutely. In 
sensation and emotion we know the absolute in our own 
nature, but not the absolute in external nature. The 
avenue through w r hich we know the external world as 
it is in that externality, is a nerve and brain, and an 
intellectual condition, antecedent to the sensation and 



WISE .VEX REVIEWED. 179 

emotion. This nerve and brain condition is produced 
by the external object by its duplicating its qualities in 
them; and based on this antecedent condition and arising 
from it as spontaneities, the sensations and emotions 
come because we have a sensational and emotional 
nature, and such are the laws of its workings. What 
the emotion is to the brain the sensations are to the 
sense, both based on the antecedent condition which is 
the avenue of knowledge. The object duplicates its 
qualities in the sense, then follows the sensation ; for we 
have an emotional nature as well as the intellectual. 
But we realize the external object through the duplica- 
tion. The programme seems to be this: the object 
duplicating its qualities in the sense; the sensation in 
the sense which to consciousness is an object of knowl- 
edge; but at the same time we attend to the qualities in 
the object, thus perceiviug it in its qualities and rela- 
tions; and consequent on this intellectual condition 
comes perhaps an emotion which is again an object of 
consciousness knowledge; consequent on the intellectual 
and emotional condition we will; consequent on that we 
act. The object does not duplicate its sensation in us 
for it has none, but it duplicates its qualities in the 
senses that we have senses to receive; and through those 
duplications we know the external object as it is, and 
absolute truth. This is all well enough in theory, but 
is there anything in the senses, or sense experience, sub- 
stantiating? Of course we have not space for a scientific 



180 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

investigation of the matter, even were we capable of that 
sort of thing. 

There is a picture in the eye duplicating the color, 
form and movement of the object producing it. This 
serves as a pointer. We are not conscious of that 
picture. This again is suggestive ; for it points to the 
fact that not being conscious of the duplication in any 
sense, cannot be taken as proof positive that the dupli- 
cation is |not there. Indeed we are much more inter- 
ested in the permanent quality in the object than we are 
in the temporary duplicate in the sense. Perchance we 
have in the race life attended so long and persistently 
to the quality in the object, neglecting the duplicate 
in the sense that we have lost the power of being con- 
scious of the duplicate, for disuse destroys. If there is 
sensation in the eye we are not conscious of it, at least, 
we are not conscious of that consciousness. What we 
call light is not a sensation ; it is a realization of a con- 
dition or quality of air or Ether by the duplication of 
that quality in the eye. 

Well, the eye is the great intellectual sense, and gen- 
eral referee for the other senses, and in it there is little 
or no sensation. The mouth is not an intellectual 
sense, but is quite a success in the sensation way. There- 
fore we conclude that knowledge does not come in 
through the sensation, but through some other channel. 
We go out to the external world by the external world 
first coming into us in the duplication way ;-we know 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 181 

the quality in the object by knowing it in the sense; 
we know it in both locations simultaneously. 

But we are told that when we look at an object we 
see it because certain rays of light or waves of Ether 
coming from the sun have impinged on the object and 
been reflected to the eye, and that is all there is of it. 
AVell that's enough. There is a why in the object of 
the reflection, and it is that why that we call color, form 
and movement. This why or noumenal condition of 
the object determines the noumenal condition of the 
intervening Ether, and this determines the condition in 
the eye ; and what more reasonable supposition than 
that the antecedent in the object is identical with the 
consequent in the eye ; the cause in the object and 
the effect in the eye are identical, made possible by 
the Ether medium which is identical with both eye and 
object, identified not only in noumenon, but for the 
time in quality. We are conscious of the quality in 
the eye. We perceive it in the object, but we do not 
realize it in the Ether medium between eye and object, 
for we can only know Ethia as she manifests herself in 
us and in other individuality. 

The sense nerve condition in the eye produeed by the 
object duplicates in the brother spirit permeating, and 
thus in knowing spirit conditions we know sense condi- 
tions, and in knowing sense conditions we know the 
external object, for there is an all-round identity, not 
only in noumenon, but for the time in quality. 

If vou extend vour hand toward a heated stove vou 



1S2 ETHIANI&M: OR THE 

have the sensation of warmth, and you know of the 
stove that it effects you thus. But antecedent to your 
sensation the stove has duplicated its heat quality in 
your hand, and based on lhat, or arising from it as a 
spontaneity comes the sensation because you have an 
emotional nature, or are capable of that sort of thing. 
Now, no one who believes heat is a species of noumenal 
motion will deny that there is the same motion in the 
stove, the air intervening, and in the hand or person; 
greater in the stove, less in the air, still less in the hand, 
but the same in character, differing only in degree. In 
this duplicate condition in the hand you know noume- 
nal, or absolute truth as in your hand, the air and the 
stove; for you thus know noumenon in one of its man- 
ifestations to your capacities. The sensation is not like 
anything in the stove; for the stove has not a sensa- 
tional nature while you have. But the duplicate condi- 
tion in the hand is the same noumenal condition that is 
in the stove; noumenon is making the same manifesta- 
tion in both locations, and in that you know absolute 
truth; you know noumenon in one of its expressions. 

You place your hand on ice, and you at once know 
the ice effects you in certain sensational way. But if 
your hand remain long, your friend coming up bears 
witness with yours that your hand is as cold as ice, the 
same noumenal quality or condition in ice and hand. If 
you know this noumenal condition in hand you know it 
in the ice, and thus know absolute truth, both subjective 
and objective; for you thus know noumenal truth, or 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 183 

noumenon in another manifestation to your capacities. 
And you do this not through the sensation but because 
the ice has duplicated its condition in your hand. 

Again, you place your hand on an object and you say 
it is solid. Well, if you attend closely to your intellect- 
ual condition you find you have a dual experience; that 
of solidity in the hand, and solidity in the object. You 
can attend to solidity in hand and in the object alter- 
nately. If you attend to solidity in the hand you know 
noumenal truth there; if you attend to it in the object 
you know the same noumenal truth there, differing only 
in degree; for it is the same noumenal condition or 
quality in both locations. But you know the noumenal 
condition in the object through first knowing it in the 
hand. The object does not duplicate its solidity in the 
hand, but it reminds us of the solidity already there, 
and in that we realize solidity in the object by attending 
to it there. The hand is made the criterion or measure, 
and some things are more solid than the hand, some less 
so. Some objects, as gases and spirit, have no solidity 
that we can detect, for they do not remind us of our 
solidity. True, we generally attend to solidity in the 
object, for we are more concerned about that. W r e are 
concerned about the solidity of an apple before we bite 
it; we already know how hard-headed we are, but are 
concerned about the solidity of an object before we butt 
that head against it; we may safely butt the winds but 
not a post. 

A bell rings out in a distant belfry; soon we hear it. 



184 ETH1ANISM: OR THE 

Those who are inclined to run everything into motion 
say the bell is in violent sound motion which duplicates 
in the air, on to the tympanum, to the sense nerves 
there and in the spirit permeating. You at once have 
the sensation of sound consequent on this antecedent 
condition, but instead of attending to it in the ear where 
you realize it in consciousness, you attend to it in the 
object perceiving it there. You know the effect of 
the bell in the sensation. But what you know abso- 
lutely of the bell is the duplicate condition which the 
same in tympanum, air and bell. When you know 
this antecedent condition in the sense, you know it in the 
air and bell, if you attend to it there. And throughout 
you evidently know absolute truth; for you know the 
absolute in that manner of manifestation to your capaci- 
ties. 

If you place sugar in the mouth you have a sensation 
in the tongue, but this sensation rests on an antecedent 
condition in the tongue which the sugar has caused. 
The sugar duplicates certain of its qualities in the 
tongue. From these qualities in the sugar sensation 
does not arise; sugar is not gifted in that line; from the 
same quality in the tongue sensation does arise, for the 
tongue wags to a thing of that sort. Of course taste is not 
an intellectual sense; we munch mostly for the fun of the 
thing which fun is in the sensation, and when munching 
we are not pursuing original inquiries in the scientific 
way. Yet when we see, hear and feel an object we 
know just that much about it; and when we taste and 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 185 

smell it we know just that much more about the object. 
If we are not content with this we can analyze on down 
to the elements, and we know that much more. But if 
you carry the thing beyond that point you know noth- 
ing; for the object ceases to be an object and becomes 
non-manifested noumenon, which your capacities fail to 
report on; it no longer has qualities that duplicate in 
your senses. 

It is well known that what are called animal passions 
come as spontaneities consequent on antecedent or nou- 
meual conditions of the system. In sensations, passions, 
and all emotions, we know absolute truth as in our emo- 
tional nature; and in our ideas we know absolute truth 
in external nature. They are not the avenue of our 
knowledge of the external world. The duplicate con- 
dition which the object produces in us in perception, and 
which we produce in ourselves in ideation is the avenue 
of our knowledge of the external world; for in that we 
know noumenon not only in ourselves but elsewhere. 
It is an avenue because it goes somewhere and is the 
same all along the line. 

It is perhaps unnecessary to pull our nose for infor- 
mation on this subject. We may note however that 
effluvia must contact with the sense of smell before it 
affects that sense. Indeed it is contact in all the senses. 
It is Ether contact in the eye; Ether or air contact in 
the ear; actual contact in the mouth and the sense of 
touch. And as contact influences by difference of 
motion this gives magnificent opportunity to those who 



186 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

are prone to run to seed to conclude that all is motion. 
The individual is but motion of noumenon ; the senses 
is one kind of motion, the object is another kind; and 
the object influences the sense by duplicating in it its 
peculiar motion, and thus we perceive it. But if we 
adopt a principle, the proper thing is to revel in it. 
And if we do that then noumenon is motion with noth- 
ing moving, and ideas are but motion. 

There are two terms of existence: Ethia non-mani- 
fested, Ethia manifested. We know Ethia manifested 
in individuality; we don't know Ethia non-manifested. 
Calling her motion or consciousness states is no good. 
The universe is Ethia manifested in individuality which 
we know by the capacities we have. We must accept 
this individuality as it appears to our capacities. If we 
let that go we are done for, and the dog who swapped 
his bone for the shadow in the water was not more 
foolish. If we don't accept individuality as it appears 
to be, and analyze and subtleize to know something 
more real, we soon run upon Ethia non-manifested, and 
then we know nothing of course. But this thing of 
driving Ethia out of her manifestations, thinking to 
know her better where not manifested to our capacities 
at all, is simply nonsense. If idealism can't accept indi- 
viduality, both spirit and physical, in which Ethia man- 
ifests herself, then the correct thing is to reject the whole 
compoodlement, Ethia with the rest, for evidently with- 
out the manifested Ethia, which is the individual, we 



WISE MEN BE VIE WED. 187 

would not have even a suspicion of the non-manifested 
Ethia. 

All individuality is real, and just what it appears to 
be to consciousness and the senses. The duplication of 
the qualities of the object in the senses is the guarantee 
that we perceive things as they are; ideation has not 
that guarantee. When the color, form, position, move- 
ment of a horse dump into the eye; certain other qual- 
ities into the ear; others into the sense of touch and 
smell; and other qualities into the mouth, if you make 
sausage of him, then you have the horse stabled and 
haltered in your intellectual make-up, for the noumenon 
you already had. And then if consciousness is reliable 
you know the horse as he is absolutely. 

Now if the reader cares to study this duplication bus- 
ness in his own couscious experience we will venture to 
advise that he do not get things mixed. An idea is 
rather a complicated affair, and usually calls into play 
all parts of the intellectual nature. We must take into 
view the whole field, and hold that view steadily if we 
wish to see the differeut parts in their proper relation. 
We must remember that sight is the great intellectual 
sense, and referee for the other senses. No matter what 
the other senses say, we want to look at the thing. 
Beside that, ideation is sight ideation, and when we hear' 
smell, or feel a thing, if we can't look at it, we form a 
sight conception of form, color, etc. If we smell a 
thing we look round for the cause; if we hear a thing 
we look at the cause or conceive of it; if we run up oil 



1S8 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

a thing in the dark we try to form a sight concept; 
when we taste a thing we don't look round for the cause, 
for it has gone in a hole, but we want to look at it 
before it goes there; when we look at a thing we don't 
look round for the cause, lor we are already looking 
directly at it. When we hear a bell we sight-concep- 
tively see it in a belfry, and perhaps a negro with a 
rope pulling for life, for the future life if it be a church 
bell. Well, it won't do to give the ear credit for all 
this; the quality that duplicates in the ear only teach us 
that about the bell, and that and the sensation provokes 
us to look at the thing sight-conceptively ; we associate 
the duplicate and the sensation with a sight object in 
certain space. 

This brings us to our second question: Do we cor- 
rectly locate in external space the qualities that dupli- 
cate in the senses? Sometimes we don't. It is said in 
countries subject to earthquakes, that the sound of a 
rumbling vehicle along the street is often associated with 
an earthquake. And sometimes looking out of a window 
a gnat there becomes ahorse out in the field. There is 
nothing wrong about the duplication, but we have placed 
the qualities in the wrong object and not in its proper 
position in external space. But these are only excep- 
tions easily explained. In normal conditions we place 
the duplicate in the proper object and in its real location. 
This the character God gave the race, and both the race 
experience and our own enables us to do. 

A thousand men looking at the same object from the 



WJ&E MEN HE VIEWED. 189 

same stand point see in it the same qualities and the 
object in the same space. If one saw different from 
the rest he would be styled color blind, a knave or a 
fool. If this same test of unanimity were applied to 
ideation as seen in religions and philosophies then one 
half of the world would be knaves and fools to the 
other half, and that half would return the compli- 
ment, which is an honest opinion with bigotry and intol- 
erance. 

Again, science all over the world agrees with itself in 
all matters of sense experience. 

Then the vulgar in all ages, scientists in all climes, 
and idealists in all experiences, everywhere outside his 
theory, say we do the correct thing in locating the exter- 
nal object and its qualities. Only the man on an high 
pedestal denies it in theory and in his library. This we 
think he does because of his exaggerated notion of man's 
importance in infinite affairs, and from a misunderstand- 
ing of the process of perception in its true inwardness. 

Indeed, if we think we see an apple of certain form 
and color hanging on a tree ten paces away, and we 
walk those paces, provided of course we had legs to do 
it with, and just as we think we are in reach of the 
apple, if we had a readier, we put forth our hand, if we 
had one, and apparently touch something of the form 
the eye said it had, and which is also solid, and as we 
approach it to the nose, it we had a nose, there is 
increased sensation there, and we tap on it if we had a 
tapper, and apparently there is sound from that point, and 



190 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

wo put it in our mouth, if we had a mouth, and just at 
thp time there is a sensation apparently there coupled 
with the apparent fact that Ave are rolling a sweet mor- 
sel somewhere about the tongue, we begin to suspect 
we have placed the qualities in the appropriate location 
and in the object where they of rights belong. 

If, in addition to this after we eat the apple, if we 
had an eater, we have a hurting in our stomach, if we 
had a stomach, then we would begin to suspect we had 
given an external thing an internal location, and would 
perhaps regret with an exceeding great remorse that we 
had not left the thing in the fullest enjoyment of that 
externality. 

Again, if we are conscious of our arm lying on the 
table, and we open our eyes and see it there, then con- 
sciousness comes nearer corroborating what the senses 
say than Idealists may think comports with its high dig- 
nity; at that point it is near associating with the plebeian 
crowd, on a common ground of equality. 

When all men in all ages bear witness with each 
other as to the external object and its space and qualities; 
and one sense corroborates another; and consciousness 
gives its evidence to the same thing; and the colic 
clinches the argument, then we must conclude there is 
something very damaging indeed in the process of per- 
ception to overcome this cloud of witnesses. 

But it suffices the man on an high pedestal that some 
philosopher in the long ago said that consciousness is 
alone reliable, and we can only be couscious of states of 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 191 

consciousness and thought relations. What, in the 

name of all the subtleties, he does with his emotions, of 
which we are most thoroughly conscious, we do not 
know. 

Most things run to seed about the last thing they do; 
after that they go back toward nihilism. Idealism seems 
to have run to seed intellectually, just as certain religion 
has run to seed emotionally. But if you want to build 
up a human character, you must build it up on all sides 
in some sort of proportion ; otherwise you grow lopsided 
apace. It would be nonsense to say any department of 
human nature is useless and must be exterminated. In 
this life intellectual nature is built on physical nature ; 
emotional nature is built on intellectual nature; and it 
takes the three departments to make a man in this life. 
Possibly in the next life we can afford to discard the 
physical, but it is rather premature to do so until we are 
dead. Neither can we safely discard the emotional as 
Idealists advise; nor the intellectual, as religion advises, 
when it substitutes faith for all things else. If they 
believe what they say. why not conform the life to the 
doctrine? Why not Idealists live a purely intellectual 
life? Why not religion live a purely emotional life? 
By all means try the experiment. 

We are of opinion the emotions are the higher depart- 
ment of our nature, but a spirit existence would include 
both the iutellect and the emotions; and the emotions 
there would base an antecedent intellectual condition as 
they do here. The spirit could leave the body behind 



192 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

and get on well enough in a spirit system of existence, 
but if it left its intellect in the rear doubtless it would 
have the experience of an old-fashioned fool in a new 
environment. But again if the spirit left its emotional 
nature behind, going to the Ether heaven as a purely 
intellectual machine, it would be a dry stick, and have 
very much the appearance of a cold, lean, learned pro- 
fessor of a college equally cold. 

It won't do to neglect either of the three departments 
of our nature here; and if we neglect either the emo- 
tional or intellectual nature here we will find ourselves 
in the next life a sad case of arrested development and 
more or less squinteyed in all possible directions. The 
moral of which is, never run to seed in any direction. 
One wants to be a full well-rounded man, solid to the 
core, if a man at all. 

Neither does it do to run to seed after God as the 
East does and would have us do, neglecting the individ- 
ual. Nor is it the correct thing to run to seed after the 
individual, as is rather the Western habit, neglecting the 
God. 

There is a manifested Ethia, which is the individual; 
and a non-manifested Ethia, absolute and infinite. Evi- 
dently the spirit should harmonize itself intellectually, 
emotionally, and its conduct with these great facts in all 
possible minutia; wherein he succeeds he is salvated; 
wherein he fails he is simply damned for the time of his 
shortcomings. That man who puts in all his time on 
God, or all his time on the individual, or all his time on 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 193 

the intellect, or all his time on the emotions, will go 
about in the Ether heaven with one shoulder up and the 
other down, just as unto this day you may see them go 
about town. 

Ethia's purposes are that man should perfect himself; 
she assuredly don't want him built up lopsided. And 
if you placed a man in your vineyard to work, you 
would expect him to work out your purposes. If he 
stood still, everlastingly walling his eyes at you you 
would pay him his talents and tell him go to, even to 
the man who wanted coon grinned out of a tree. 

But the Idealist on an high pedestal of learn iug says 
you ignoramuses have no ground for an argument. 
There is no external world, you have no body, neither 
have you a spirit; a bundle of consciousness states or 
thought relations is the size of your pile; you should 
be well up in those things if you expect to see kingdom 
come. The bishop will tell you there is no external 
world, and he is glad of it, for from it men get a differ- 
ent concept of God to what he has, and become atheistic, 
skeptic and all that sort of thing. Man has a spirit 
breathed into Adam and descended into all men; the 
animal and nothing else has. True, this man spirit has 
thoughts, emotions, will, but they are produced by God, 
and are not the result of the spirit acting out the nature 
God gave it toward the environment in which he placed 
it. The God produces his thoughts with clock-work 
regularity. Indeed we must admire the clock-work reg- 

13 



194 ETHIANISM: OR J HE 

ularity. If the man is to believe he has fruit in his 
orchard, if he had one, at harvest time, he must be lead 
up to it from early spring, with much clock-like regu- 
larity, for if he found fruit at harvest time when there 
had been none before, most likely he would say, well, 
I'll be mystified. It would indeed be a miracle. 

Ethia manifested to our capacities in certain space is 
the individual, and we can only know the individual in 
its qualities just as we can only know Ethia in her man- 
ifestations. AVhen we know a certain combination of 
qualities in certain space, we know that individual, and 
at the same time we know Ethia there manifested. 
When we know consciousness states or thought relations 
we know the spirit individual which is Ethia in that 
space manifesting herself in those things. Is there any 
great good sense in stopping at the thoughts, refusing 
to know the individual spirit, or at the spirit refusing 
to know Ethia, when you do the whole thing in the 
one act? 

Again, is the Bishop right when he denies the exter- 
nal physical world? In physical qualities we know the 
physical individual, and Ethia as there manifested. 
Shall Ave stop at the physical qualities refusing to know 
the individual and the God, especially as it is no further 
bother? That God produces our thoughts is evident; 
but it is the manifested God as in the individual that 
has the thoughts. The manifested God does what the 
individual does, but not the non-manifested God; neither 
does the man in the moon think for us. As we have 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 195 

said, there are two views; you may speak'jof what 
God does, or what the individual does, with equal truth, 
for the individual is the manifested God. The jWest 
speaks of what the individual does; it is ' the habit of 
the East to give God credit, and our Eastern religion 
keeps up the fashion. It seeks to graft on to the Western 
mind an Eastern habit, to which, of course, there is no 
objection, only it is an uphill business unless the soil 
was in better kelter. 

Egotism of race and a misunderstanding of the pro- 
cess of perception annihilates all else but thought rela- 
tions, or consciousness states. But a dash' of genuine 
humility and a little deeper insight into the process of 
perception and the general relation of things, we^think 
restablishes existence on the very same how-firm-me- 
foundations which ignorance originally gave it. 

Therefore, three cheers and a donkey for ignorance 
and the worlds it believes in. "Where ignorance is 
bliss it were follv to be wise." 



196 E1HIAJSISM: OR THE 



CHAPTER VIII. 

IDEATION. 

Science uses the Senses and Consciousness ; Religion and Phil- 
osophy uses Ideation. Ideation not altogether reliable in 
the Science domain, where its assertions can be tested by the 
Senses and Consciousness. Is Ideation more fortunate else- 
where? The baleful influences of the Hopes, Fears and 
Vanities, and of obsolete fundamental principles. Conclu- 
sion. 

That our manuscript may have its duplicate in our 
pocket-book, we shall have to proceed to wind out in 
something of a running style. 

We not only know the external world perceptively, 
but also ideatively, or without the duplication in the 
sense. If I look at an object, then close my eyes, still 
thinking of it, I am in the same intellectual condition 
that I was in when looking at it, except that the object 
is not now duplicating its qualities in the sense. 

The power of ideation is evidently the power of 
throwing ourselves into the self-same condition we 
would be in it actually looking at the object. Ideation 
is almost altogether sight ideation; for in the present 
stage of race evolution we are not very successful in 
ideating an object in any but the qualities, form, color 
and movement. What the race will do later no man 
knows. 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 197 

This power of ideation is a later growth in the race 
life. Consciousness and the senses are mature; for the 
animal and ignorant men are as conscious, and in many 
cases have more acute senses than the learned. But the 
animal and ignorance are deficient in the power of idea- 
tion, and evidently this capacity is still progressive in 
its development in the race-life. Perhaps in the race- 
life we were first conscious of the duplication in the 
sense, but not successful in placing the duplicate quality 
in the appropriate external object. Afterward we learned 
to place the quality in the object without being conscious 
of the duplicate in the sense; finally we are learning to 
ideate or place the quality without the duplication at all, 
which is ideation pure and unadulterated. But we can't 
ideate in the object any but qualities we can perceive; 
that is, we can't throw ourselves, in our power of idea- 
tion, into any brain, and nerve, and intellectual condi- 
tion that we have not been in when actually looking at 
a thing. What the race will do later, or what a higher 
race will do, no man knows, but that is all we can do 
now. And its all men have ever done, no matter how 
much inspiration and intellectual intuition they may 
have claimed, or how ecstatic they may have been; for 
none of them offer us an ideate object with any but per- 
ceptive qualities. 

This duplication of the quality of the object in the 
senses, thus placing it within consciousness, is the guar- 
antee of the truthfulness of what the senses tell us. 
Ideation has not this guarantee. Hence, all men believe 



198 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

what they see, but not more than half of what they read 
or hear, aud only the man on an high pedestal places 
implicit reliance on himself while ideating. Hence, there 
is unanimity in science, but unutterable confusion in 
religion and philosophy. 

While we cannot see or be conscious of a thing 
that does not exist, we may ideate anything we choose 
within our capacity of ideation. In ideation we can 
combine perceptive qualities as we have never seen them 
combined and as they are perhaps nowhere absolutely 
combined. Fiction makes no pretense of offering us 
objective realty. Indeed ideation has no regard to 
objective truth. 

An idea has two terms and the copula: the spirit, its 
intellectual attitude, and the object. The two first terms 
of the idea, the spirit and the attitude is always real, 
just as real when reading fiction as when reading his- 
tory. But in history we suppose the object real, that 
is, we suppose it to be an absolute existence in certain 
space'and certain time. In fiction we do not so suppose. 

And in reasoning after having the concept we have 
still something to do; we have still to decide whether 
the concept is objectively true, that is whether there is 
anything in nature corresponding with the objective. 
This may be done in two ways. Science theorizes and 
then works up to the theory by observation and expe- 
rience; they test their ideations by the senses and con- 
sciousness. And they so test because they rely on what 
consciousness and the senses say, while they do not place 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 199 

implicit reliance on ideation. Scientists are men of 
experience and mathematical reasoning from that expe- 
rience; they are not of unlimited faith in intellectual 
intuition and inspiration. If they implicitly relied on 
intuition and inspiration as some philosophy and religion 
does, then they would not test their ideations or theories 
by the senses and consciousness; it would be useless. 
But science finds that intuition and ideation is not 
always reliable in its domain; for many plausable theo- 
ries explode, and often we conceive of an object in cer- 
tain location which when we apply the senses we find is 
not there at all. The senses are the great reliance of 
science, and they are reliable because of the duplication 
of the quality of the object in them. This duplication 
is the guarantee which the senses have, and which idea- 
tion has not. 

Of course science reasons and to that extent relies on 
intuition, but confines itself to its sphere. And the 
only result of this reasoning, outside of the mathemati- 
cal, is the formation of theories which are given greater 
or less weight according to probabilities. 

But if science gets too far from the facts of the senses 
and consciousness, then they are speculators with the rest. 
This we think they do when they talk of the atom, 
forces, transmutations and all that. Science finds 
that ideation and intuition often fails him in his own 
domain where the thing can be tested, then why he 
should place implicit reliance on the atom and the forces 
of which the senses and consciousness say not a thing, 



200 ETHIAN1SM: OR THE 

we do not just see. He never saw an atom nor a force, 
and if he is conscious of force, then it is spirit. 

The science sphere is the sphere of the senses and 
consciousness, the manifest Ethia in the universe. He 
deals not with, her in Ether, nor in other systems of 
existence, because the senses are not applicable. And as 
this embraces about all we can know with our present 
capacities with any sort of certainty we think science 
ought in all conscience to be willing to leave the rest to 
ideation, that is, to speculators, religion and philosophy. 
To do so in a grudging way does not become them. Of 
course scientists have the same right with others to 
speculate, but when they do so they don the speculative 
and religious coat, and we can't then find it in our 
bosoms to pay more attention to them than others, for 
their conclusions there are not matters of consciousness, 
nor have they the duplication guarantee oi the senses. 

Science may object to turning Ethia and other sys- 
tems of existence over to religion and philosophy because 
that domain is much larger than theirs. But you see 
science is in full possession; they are realizing on their 
property, while religion and philosophy must needs die 
or wait for greater capacity before coming into any sort 
of legal relation with their vast inheritance, and in such 
case the man is in no great haste to enforce his legal 
rights. 

True, we tell science Ethia is infinite and absolute, 
and that she manifests herself in the universe. But we 
no sooner speak of the manifestation than we are in 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 201 

science territory, and science takes the thing up, study- 
ing it as evolution, and telling us to go about our busi- 
ness, that they will see to the rest. The Hegelian 
philosophy tells science that Ethia is the absolute, the 
"imminent nothing," but Hegel no sooner has this "noth- 
ing" -elf-develop into "something" than science takes 
the something up studying it as evolution, and tells 
Hegel his philosophy is greatly buncombe in the science 
domain. Religion tells science Ethia is a personal God 
in a local heaven, who created the world in the begin- 
ning; but the beginning is no sooner begun than science 
takes it up, studying it as evolution, and telling religion 
that its inspired men are very much off when they speak 
of things in the science sphere. 

And none of us can help ourselves, for the people will 
believe science, or the senses and consciousness, before 
ideation. If we venture on science territory we must 
needs abide by what science says about it; no man, 
inspired or what not, is able to stand up against science 
in its own country. Therefore speculators are very 
much inclined to stay out of that country- And if any 
of our progenitors have ventured too far, conflicting 
with science, then we wish they hadn't, for it is a source 
of much revision. But we have a very cute way out of 
that sort of difficulty; if we conflict with science in any 
case of fact we say oh ! bother ! we don't care for those 
thing.-, or we were not inspired about that; we deal with 
things eternal in the skies. But as eternal things in 
the heavens means Ethia and other systems of existence, 



202 ETHIANISM: OB 1HE 

we don't deal with them to any alarming extent, since 
we know nothing of other systems of existence, and 
Ethia only as she manifests herself in the concatenation, 
which is the science domain. 

So that speculators, philosophical and otherwise, seem 
to be in a bad row for stumps. But we can still shout, 
there is a God, and that Ethia the infinite absolute is a 
much more reasonable concept than is the atom. Science 
can't shut off our wind on that. If we are absurd on 
science ground, science is not less preposterous on ours 
when it calls God an atom. And if the scientist when 
he transmutes out of the concatenation goes to Ether 
heaven as a force, we spirit fellows will assuredly have 
the laugh on him then. It is to be hoped he will not 
in revenge transmute into heat, for if the parson is any 
good as a prognosticator it will be hot enough anyway. 

The scientist tells us force controls the concatenation, 
but unfortunately he never saw a force, and if he is con- 
scious of force it is spirit. Therefore when he postulates 
force as the moving principle of the concatenation he is 
out of his territory, he is theorizing, he is speculating, 
since there is not an earthly chance of verification. 
Well, we speculate that spirit is the moving principle, 
and that this spirit is the divine energy of Ethia opera- 
tive in the thing acting. If the non-manifested Ethia 
influences the individual in any other way, or in any- 
thing like a miraculous way, she does so by changing 
the character of the spirit conjoined with the physical 
side. This she could easily do since she permeates all 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 203 

existence, and all spirit comes from her. Whether she 
ever does this is to be decided by facts in the science 
way. One man can speculate one way, another man the 
other way. but it amounts to nothing in the absence of 
supporting facts. 

Science, pure and unadulterated, has nothing to do 
with the noumenon of existence, nor with the control- 
ing principles of the concatenation. On the physical side 
it begins with the element and ends with the star: these 
two extremes and the "interim" is the science domain. 
When he passes beyond the element he is a theologian, 
a philosopher, a speculator. He is theorizing with no 
chance to verify in the senses and consciousness. If he 
say- there is nothing beyond the element, he is a nega- 
tive theologian ; if he says there is something beyond the 
element, he is a positive theologian. If he calls that 
something an atom, Matter, or anything else, he gives 
his theology definite expression and conflicts with all 
who are not of like opinion. 

Xow we can understand that science can take this 
consistent position. There is something beyond the ele- 
ment, a noumenon of existence, but we have not the 
least idea what it is until it comes within our sphere at 
the element, where it first manifests itself to our capaci- 
ties. But as we need a term in discussion we call it 
atom, or matter, in a non-committal way, as to what the 
thing really is. They can take a like consistent posi- 
tion as to the moving principle; there is a moving prin- 
ciple, as is clearly proved by the fact that things move. 



:>04 E1HIANISM: OR 1HE 

What that principle is we do not know; but we must 
have a term in discussion, and we call it force in a non- 
committal way as to what the thing really is. He thus 
leaves the question open as to what the God and moving 
principle is. He then is at liberty with all other specu- 
lators to say God is the Atom, Matter, Pan God, Per 
God, or what not. He is also at liberty to say the 
moving principle is innate property, divine energy, spirit, 
or what not. 

When science uses the terms force and atom as in- 
clusive, in a non-committed way, of all Gods and mov- 
ing principles we can understand them. But if any 
science uses the terms as exclusive of any God or mov- 
ing principle, then we fail to hitch on. That force means 
anything definite excluding property of matter, or divine 
energy, or spirit, we don't see. Do you know anything 
about force that you do not know about these others ? 
That the atom means anything difinite, anything more 
than the ultimate reach of our capacities in the direction 
of subtlety without letting go of form or proportions 
we can't make out. In analysis larger individuality run 
down to smaller; smaller individuality down to ele- 
ments; the elements run down to the atom; but the 
atom don't run down because we can't run after it. If the 
atom ran down, losing form, it would become a profound 
mystery beyond our capacities, which would not suit the 
man on an high pedestal. It is a little difficult for man 
to realize the fact that nature pays no attention what- 
ever to incapacity; she feels under no manner of obliga- 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 205 

tion to stop at the end of man's tether. When man 
undertakes to bring the whole of existence on his plane, 
or to hold on to it when there, he attempts a big thing, 
and the man on an high pedestal is alone equal to the 
occasion. 

If science would keep out of a row with theology 
and at the same time do the correct thing for itself, it 
will drop the atom aud forces, and confine itself to the 
individual and its conduct, thus leaving it for others to 
fight it out about the Gods, and moving principles. If 
philosophy will then busy itself with the general principles 
of science, and religion come down out of the clouds 
and teach us what our emotions and conduct toward our 
environment should be, something that they know some- 
thing about, then things will be reasonably lovely and 
the goose will be all right. 

Science tests its legitimate theories with the sense and 
consciousness, in which is included mathematical reason- 
ing. But philosophy and religion do not; and they are 
mad as tuckeeho if you ask them to. They say to 
science, go to gehenna with your incapacities; we are 
inspired, or we have intellectual intuition; we don't 
have to be tested; we are full proof and a yard wide. 
And when those higher powers venture into science 
domain, conflicting with what science says about it, there 
i- much bad blood in high life, which is not all purified 
by the people demanding that the higher powers there 
give way before the incapacities. 

The higher powers do not test the objective truth of 



206 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

their ideations by the senses and consciousness, in their 
particular sphere, for two good reasons, they can't and 
they don't want to. They tell ns it is useless, for they 
are infallible in their intuitions of the true. Science 
perhaps points out that they are not infallible in its 
sphere, and that the presumption is that they are not 
infallible in any sphere. But this does not bother the 
higher powers, which have great contempt for the inca- 
pacities, the senses and consciousness; they do not bother 
about these things; they are not inspired about things 
on the science plane; they deal with things eternal and 
in the heavens. And it is lucky for them; for no man 
can tell in the scientific way whether they are infallible 
out there or not. But if they are, then there are many 
kinds of infallibility and it has divers results, as seen in 
different systems of religions and philosophies. 

They tell us ideas are the same as things, and that all 
clear ideas are objectively true. Just how transparent 
an idea has to be to give it objective truth is not perhaps 
stated. 

Now, all ideas, so far as the subject and the intellect- 
ual attitude is concerned, are the same as the thing and 
real. The bother is as to the objective part of the idea. 
Is there anything absolutely in externality correspond- 
ing with the thing of which we conceive? Sometimes there 
is, sometimes there is not. It depends. I may conceive 
of a gold mine ten feet under ground. I, and my intel- 
lectual attitude are real, but the gold mine may not be 
there. I may conceive of a mountain in Asia standing 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 207 

on its apex, its base turned up to the sun, with pearls 
lying round loose as large as pumpkins. Consciousness 

says you and your intellectual attitude are real but it fails 
to commit itself to the mountain in that position or the 
pearls. 

Then in the science domain the ideative idea is not 
always the same as the thing, that is, the idea, be it 
never so transparent, is not always objectively true. But 
the idea, is always subjectively true, for subjectively all- 
ideas are true, as true when reading the Arabian Nights 
as when studying science. 

But in the science domain consciousness ideas and 
percept ideas are always true and the same as the thing; 
the object always exists and exists as we know it. In 
consciousness the spirit is conscious of its thoughts, will 
and emotions; the idea is the same as the thing, and is 
not only subjectively true but true throughout. In per- 
ception the- object and sense is identified in noumenon, 
and when the qualities of the object duplicate in the 
senses, and we realize it, the idea is the same as the 
thing; the spirit for the time of perceiving is identified 
with the object in both noumenon and qualities, and in 
knowing itself it knows the object, for the idea and the 
thing is the same, and the idea is not only subjectively 
true but objectively true, also. 

Now, in ideation we throw ourselves into the percep- 
tive attitude; we aim to produce in ourselves the pre- 
cise same condition we would be in if actually looking 
at the thinor ideated. If we succeed the idea is the 






208 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

same as the thing, for we are identified with the thing 
in the nonmenon and qualities of the thing; we have 
harmonized ourselves intellectually with objective fact, 
and the idea is both subjectively and objectively true. 
But if we fail to effect this indentity or harmony the 
idea is not the same as the thing; it is subjectively true, 
but not objectively. 

As we have said, ideation has no regard to truth. 
We can ideate any combination of qualities within our 
capacity of ideation, regardless of whether there is abso- 
lutely any such combination in externality or not. But 
if we are seeking truth, and not ideating for the fun of 
the thing, as when reading fiction, after we have the 
idea or concept, it still remains to decide whether the 
idea is objectively true; whether there is anything in 
nature corresponding with the object; whether the idea 
is the same as the thing; whether we harmonize intellect- 
ually with objective existence. This we decide in some 
sort of intuitive way, for what we call reason is the 
power of ideation coupled with this intuition of the true. 

That all men have this intuition in some degree seems 
evident, for if he had it not he would not recognize the 
truth if he met it on the street. Indeed, he wouldn't 
know beans when the sack's open. Well, this intuition 
is the recognition of the identity or harmony between 
the intellectual condition and objective fact, when in 
our ideations we succeed in establishing it. Any man 
who has wrestled with knotty points knows that he 
ideates in a great many ways of how the thing might be. 



1 \ VSJE MEN BE VIE WED. 209 

Perhaps he does this for days and dreams of it of nights, 
and finally gives the thing up for the time; he is not 
content with any of his concepts. But if he is persis- 
tent he tackles the thing again and again, until finally 
he hits on a concept which he accepts as the truth with 
considerable gladness, without any apparent reason for 
accepting except that he intuitively realizes it as the 
truth. Well, if this gladness, or content, has any nou- 
menal foundation it is because the thinker has succeeded 
in establishing an identity or harmony in his intellectual 
nature with objective existence; the noumenon in him- 
self has harmonized itself with noumenon elsewhere in 
certain qualities. 

Now we are inclined to believe all men would be 
infallible in their intuitions of the true, if they were 
absolutely free in their intuitions. We don't think the 
intellectual nature, or noumenon there would ever fail 
to realize the identity or harmony when established in 
ideation, if the intellect were not biased by outsiders 
who have no business in the matter and ought have no 
finger in the pie. Very few intellects, however, are 
absolutely free, independent and unbiased in their intu- 
itions. And very many intellects fail of reaching the 
truth from lack of power of ideation ; they fail to know 
the truth because they fail to conceive of it, and of 
course they could not intuitively accept the truth until 
they ideate it. But in many instances the intellect fails 
to realize the truth after it ideates it. This is scarcely 

14 



210 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

the fault of the intellect, so much so as the turpitude of 
its advisors. 

The emotional nature is the worst enemy the intellect 
has in this respect. The fears, the hopes, the vanities, 
often play hob with man's intellect; they lead it astray 
in its conclusions; indeed, play the very devil with it. 
But for man's vanity he never would have got up on 
an high pedestal ; for nothing else in nature could have 
elevated him to that preposterous eminence. There is 
not leverage enough in all known facts to give him the 
prominence in infinite affairs which his vanity easily 
does. And we know of no more fearful case of inflation 
than that of the Jews, when they appropriated the 
infinite, absolute God all unto themselves ; and the par- 
son's humility is not strikingly apparent when he makes 
God the exclusive property of the human race. If man 
had never got up on an high pedestal, he would never 
have believed the world was made exclusively for 
him ; nor that existence is confined to his knowledge of 
it ; nor that God attends exclusively to his interests ; 
nor would he have railed at God through the devil 
because hp made man imperfect in the beginning, and 
gave him an environment somewhat inharmonious; 
indeed, the devil would have been nowhere in sight. 
But having climbed to an high pedestal, naturally 
enough he has placed himself out of normal relations 
with not only God, but with the balance of the concate- 
nation, and equally naturally he sees many things in a 
false light. He intuitively accepts as true, and with 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 211 

very great gladness, that which satisfies his hopes and 
allays his tears, and especially and above all, that which 
maintains him on his an high pedestal. And this he 
imagines is intellectual intuition, or perhaps inspiration. 

Man's emotional nature and ignorance leads him to 
form some false fundamental concept of existence. This 
is dingdonged into his children even to the remotest 
ages in text books and other books, at the fireside, in 
college, and in tabernacle; indeed the woods is full of 
it. and no wonder the thing lives long after it ought to 
be dead. And so long as the thing prevails it is con- 
cluded everything is true that harmonizes with the funda- 
mental concept, just as the builder accepts everything 
as good that he can use in his present job. 

But this is scarcely intellectual intuition. It is emo- 
tional and tribal or partisan intuition. It reaches tribal 
truth and satisfies the tribe, but does not always reach 
absolute truth. To reach absolute truth one must be 
absolutely free in his intuitions, uninfluenced by his 
emotions and all tribal relations or fundamental con- 
cepts. He must in his intuitions surrender himself 
unreservedly, not to his emotions, nor his ancestry, nor 
his surroundings, but to the noumenon of his existence. 
He must see things direct, and not in reflection from 
what others have said about them. He must think 
with his own brain. Indeed it is our opinion that is 
what we have brains for. 

In conclusion, if it be objected that we show strong 
disposition to drag man down from his an high pedestal, 



212 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

then we say we have no disposition to degrade man 
below his merits, nor to puff him above. As to whether 
man was originally created perfect or imperfect it mat- 
ters remarkably little to ns now; to-day we have the 
usual admixture. As Col. Ingersoll suggests, we are 
more concerned about what the son is now than about 
what the fathers were in the long ago. We are more 
concerned about our absolute standing than about our 
relative standing, and our absolute standing here and 
our prospects hereafter are in nowise influenced by 
what we think about ourselves. Inflating ourselves 
with an artificial importance will take us no higher than 
the pedestal; a just judgment of ourselves wont keep us 
out of a future existence if the God has so ordained. If 
the beginning of the race was but slight improvement 
on the monkey we are at this point of evolution just 
what we are; if the race began in paradise we amount 
to about the same thing. Whether we fell down 
through the garden, or fell up through the monkey, is 
a matter of no great concern ; we must needs accept our 
present condition no matter how it came about. Nor 
does it matter whether we think we are specially loved 
of God; he loves us to the extent of what he has done 
for us; what that extent is the concatenation shows for 
itself. To puff ourselves up to anything more because 
it tickles our fancy is the child's play of makebelief, 
and the world is growing too old for that sort of thing. 
Man is just what he is, and his prospects are what they 
are; he is that much if he came down from heaven 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 213 

through the garden; he is no more if he came from the 
monkey. Anything more belongs to the ''pleasures of 
the imagination." 

Xo doubt mau originally came from Ethia in the 
Ether heaven, but whether he came through the garden, 
or as an evolution from the monkey, or from the animal 
plane fund of spirit, it matters not. It matters remark- 
ably little what route he came, or what his line of ante- 
cedents back to Ethia in Ether is; he got here all the 
same. Man is not so much concerned about what is 
behind him; his face is set toward Zion, Mecca, or the 
Ether heaven. He is not so much concerned how he got 
here from Ethia in Ether as how he will get back to her 
there iu proper shipshape; he don't want the God nor 
his old acquaintances to be ashamed of him when he 
gets back home. But puffing himself upas the specially 
loved of God for whom the world was made and the son 
given, does not better his nature here nor improve his 
prospects there. Indeed if that concept is erroneous we 
are to that extent damaged by it in this life, and the 
tendency of the thing will be to gravitate us into one of 
those hell pools in the next life. 

Then if it is a question of what shall we do to be 
saved, never start to heaven by way of an high 
pedestal. We are specially concerned about the rural 
parson. He is very anxious to go to heaven and if he 
failed no doubt it would break his bosom. Yet when 
we hear him in the pulpit everlastingly scoring an 
imagined old- gentleman of horns and much color for 



214 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

what the God himself did we must confess to sad mis- 
givings. 

Again it is" perhaps objected that we speak with too 
much levity of the God of existence; our face is not 
long enough nor our voice properly dolorous; we are 
not adequately impressed with the magnitude of the 
occasion nor at all up to the regulation standard in 
adoration. 

As we have said, we judge by the universe standard 
and by what we know about the universe. Well, the 
universe is just what it is, no matter what God created 
it or what principle governs it. It is the same whether 
created and controlled by the Atom and Forces, by Mat- 
ter, by Pantheistic God, by the Personal God, or by the 
Infinite Absolute God. Therefore every man has the 
same reasons fo: adoring and worshipping his God that 
other men have for worshipping their Gods. And if 
you see the A to mist building temples and dedicating 
them to the Atom and Forces you are not to be sur- 
prised, nor condemn them for it so long as they believe 
in that manner of God. Nor are you to be astonished 
neither disgusted with Materialists and Pantheists for 
doing the same thing. The contest is among the Gods. 
There is a God. The question is, what is the true con- 
cept of that God? Everybody worships his own con- 
cept. 

But Atomists and Materialists are not so enthusiastic 
over their Gods as are Pantheists and those who believe 
in a personal God, notwithstanding they have the same 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 215 

reasons so far as we can see. The Pantheist contem- 
plates God, becomes ecstatic, and yearns with a mighty 
yearn for nir wanna or absorption into that God. Every 
one knows just how enthusiastic the religions man is, 
what he does and what he expects. The religions man 
has this advantage over the others in the matter of 
enthusiasm; one can be more enthusiastic toward a per- 
sonality than toward an universality. But the great 
advantage the religious man has over the others, as to 
enthusiasm, is the devil. These others hold their Gods 
accountable for the concatenation as it is, while the 
religious man saddles the bad on the devil and gives 
thanks to the God for the good. They love the God 
for the good, and hate the devil for the bad. But if the 
love of the God and the hatred of the devil were thrown 
together, and an average struck, would the emotional 
condition of the religious man balance up any better 
than those others? True, the outside world fails to 
understand the fall and the atonement business; indeed 
to them it seems something of a bunglesome affair to 
allow the world to fall through the demon created, since 
it necessitates the atonement, and the loss of those who 
lived before and of all who go the " broad road" after. 
But the religious man does understand it, and so long 
as he has faith in the concept his emotions are the same, 
whether the concept has objective truth or not. For 
our emotions hinge not on the objective truth of our 
concepts but on our belief. If I have a brother in 
Africa who is a hunter of tigers, and I hear through 



216 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

what I consider trustworthy sources and believe that 
he has been devoured by them, I grieve all the same 
whether that brother be dead or alive. 

Perhaps an additional source of enthusiasm to the 
religious man is his belief that he has a spirit here and 
that he will have a spirit existence after death. But 
one sees not why the others may not have the same 
belief and consolation. The Atom, Matter and Pan- 
theistic God as Gods are utterly beyond our conceptive 
reach. We know nothing of any of them until they 
manifest themselves in* the things of the universe to our 
capacities. Suppose any of them in Ether nonmani- 
fested, then the universe is this noumenon or God man- 
ifested; manifested in physical qualities it is the phys- 
ical individual; manifested in spirit attributes it is the 
spirit individual. Then if even the Atom is the God, 
we see not an earthly reason why we should not have a 
spirit existence here and hereafter. That the Atomist 
and Materialist allow the others to have a monopoly on 
spirit existence does not show good business talent, or 
that they are extra sharp in looking out for the main 
chance. 

If we were going to indicate a line of inquiry by 
scientific methods, it would be something like this • 

What is the true concept of God ? Is he an Atom, 
Matter, Pan. God, Per. God, or Infinite, Absolute God? 

Is the God responsible for the concatenation as it is, 
or did the devil have a hand in the matter? 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 217 

Are there special devils and saviors, or are all good 
men saviors to the extent of their saving influence, and 
all bad men devils in like proportion? 

Does the concatenation show that it was made alone 
for man? 

Was man made perfect in the beginning? 

To solve this last problem it is necessary to go back 
to those garden folks, the Egyptians, Jews, Persians, 
Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Does their history show 
them to have come down from a perfect "beginning," or 
up from a very primitive condition? Of course we 
Western people are a different and later growth, more 
or less influenced by those Eastern peoples. We may 
have had a garden of our own, or we may have fallen 
from the Eastern condition to our condition 3000 years 
ago through battling with the hoot owls. 

Again, does the character of what the Biblical writers 
actually teach — and not what translation and interpre- 
tation, or the intellectual character of the age makes 
them teach — and their manner of teaching it, show them 
to have had special inspiration? Certain theology, 
defending some of the teachings of Moses and others of 
the earlier Jewish writers, tell us religion is an evolu- 
tion, progressive. Does this evolution coincide with the 
evolution of the secular human intellect? Did they 
write as men would write among those Eastern peoples 
in those times? Of course, if those men were inspired, 
too much attention cannot be given them. But if they 



218 ETHIANISM: OR THE 

were ordinary writers, who but expressed the concepts 
of their age and surroundings, the amount of talent of 
the very highest order expended on them is something 
fearful and not a little ludicrous. Will the foundation 
support the superstructure ? Is it too much sugar for a 
sixpence? Is the grain worth the elaborate and expensive 
winnowing? 

Finally, does man's salvation depend on religious 
ceremonies, or does it depend on his own efforts and the 
efforts of the race, building on the character the God 
gave the race in its creation, and in accordance with the 
plan which the God himself has impressed on the con- 
catenation ? If salvation depends on ceremonies, then 
the government does well to dedicate the Sabbath to 
those ceremonies ; provided of course, it is lawful for a 
government tc establish and maintain a religion. But 
if salvation depends on the race's own efforts, then why 
should the government interfere with those efforts? 
Why deny those men, whose hearts overflow with sym- 
pathy and kindness, the privilege of giving the poor 
children of the cities an airing on the Lord's day? 
Whatever the Lord may think about it, we've no idea 
Ethia has the least objection, since she evidently desires 
the happiness of all her children. Why deny the use 
of the Lord's day to the German for social enjoyment, 
and for social, intellectual and emotional improvement? 
Evidently Ethia desires that her sons and daughters 
should make an all round progress, for that is the order 
of her creations. True, the religious man thinks it 



WISE MEN REVIEWED. 219 

necessary to devote this day to religious performances. 
But why constrain other men to a like line of conduct, 
or to utter stagnation, when they are of a different 
opinion ? There are diverse forms of despotism. 



I C-136 



fi 



ETHIANISM: 



OR THE 



Wise Men Reviewed 



By RIPLEY. 



"Man is not born to solve the mystery of existence, 
but he must nevertheless attempt it in order that he 
may learn to keep within the limits of the knowable." 

GOETHE. 



ATLANTA, GEORGIA: 

Constitution Publishing Company, 

1893. 






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